AIBU if you have a cold, stay at home...

[kateskates]

... and don't bring tour germs into work. Everyone at my DHs office has caught a cold and are sneezing and coughing. My three month old DS has caught it. :(

I agree with others who have already said it wouldn't be a problem if people didn't seem be so unhygienic these days.
The number of people who don't bother covering their mouths, or at least coughing away from people instead of directly at them, is ridiculous.

Many people seem to have forgotten the importance of basic hygiene and manners. That's the real problem.

I hate people who are drama queens and take to bed st the first sign of a sniffle!

Most people with a mild cold are more than able to carry on life as normal. The country would come to a standstill otherwise

Ih, I now remember all the times I dragged myself to work whilst being ill... why? Pressure, money, presenteism.......

Hospital staff can’t work with patients when they have colds though - half my family is in the nhs (paramedics, nurses, consultants) and if they have a cold they do non-patient duties.

Can we have some NHS workers backing up this or do we assume it’s total fiction?

I’ve known people go to work with D&V, shingles and chicken pox etc. Especially lovely if you are a food server or work with pregnant ladies or immune compromises people!

When I was cabin crew we could have one discounted (not counted towards sickness absence) cold a year from memory. It’s dangerous to fly with blocked ears as the eardrum can perforate leading to hearing loss. Also, viruses spread easily in the recycled air onboard!

I'm sorry your baby is ill OP.

I work in an early years setting. It's cold city here. If staff were off every time they had a cold we couldn't run. Mind you if the children didn't come in whenever they had a cold we wouldn't have a setting full stop!

If you're planning to use a childcare setting if any description or indeed a school later on I'd brace yourself now. Consider it building LO's immune system for the inevitable onslaught.

This place is such a paradox though...posters on this thread agreeing with OP saying sick employees should stay home until they are well...then threads where the OP is asking if they should stay off work for X horrible virus have hoards of posters telling them they can't be that sick if they are posting and how work shy they are!

It's annoying but yabu.

EvilDoctorHogmanayDuck
Sorry, didn't read it properly. He's very tired, his new meds don't seem to be working very well. I'm just happy he's still alive, when he was diagnosed at 5yo, they gave him a prognosis of 10 - 25 years. Thanks for asking.

I'm sorry about the meds. I hope things improve for him.

My cousin has a 10 year old with CF. We didn't know the family carried the gene until she was born. She looks healthy right now, just so very pale.

Yeah, same here, we didn't know the family carried the gene either.

DS1 can't work, and has a nap every day. He barely eats, has a PEG but rarely does his night feeds as they make him feel sick in the morning. I've suggested propping himself up on pillows, but I don't know if they can send smaller bottles of the stuff?

I have a daughter who was ten weeks premature, spent eight weeks in neo natal intensive care unit, has chronic lung disease and came home from hospital on oxygen. she gets an rsv jab during the winter months, and the outpatient clinic where the rsv jabs is always, without fail full of people sitting waiting for the other clinics on, coughing and sneezing everywhere. at my daughters last jab in december (the 23rd) there was a man, woman and baby in a car seat. the man quite clearly had the cold, and was coughing and sneezing in the opposite direction from his child towards my vulnerable and at risk child. she caught the cold over christmas.

but that being said, I'm talking about a hospital environment where people really should stay away with coughs and colds, but in the workplace if everyone where to stay away when they had a sniffle, things wouldn't really work out would they?

Wishing your cousin's DD many relatively healthy, active years ahead.

People who have jobs can't stay off work for just a cold. My DH goes to work with a cold, he doesn't have a choice as he would face disciplinary procedures with more than 3 instances of being off sick in one year. You never know when you might be genuinely ill and need more time off.

It's when children are in nursery that they then catch everything going, and pass it onto their parents, who then pass the germs around at the office.

Babies and toddlers benefit from having colds, as it develops their immunity. My DDs both had lots of colds then but now they don't. And when they do have colds, they still go to school unless they have a temperature.

I hate to point out the obvious but why do so many people seem to think they know who gave them/their children a cold?

Someone could be coughing and spluttering because air's caught the back of their throat, a bit if post nasal drip, swallowed the wrong way. A sneeze could be linked to allergens, same for a bad nose.
One of my formwr colleagues used to get really watery eyes during winter. No idea why, but it wasn't a cold.

Meanwhile, you have someone wiping their runny nose quietly, someone else who is symptom free breathing near you and any surface you touch that hasn't been detolled every 5 minutes.

You simply don't know so it seems silly getting annoyed at somebody

I think colds are contagious upto a day before the symptoms start.

Some people don't receive sick pay. One year I had a cold nearly every month, there was no way that I could have taken time off work for every illness. Most jobs you can still work with a cold, but it does increase the spread of illness to other people

it's not only lack of sick pay. 3 absences triggers disciplinary action in many companies and people cannot afford to lose their jobs over a cold.

I'd better tell the nurse caring for my FIL that she should be at home. And the doctor I saw last week.

Yabu, if I was off work every time I had a cold I'd have no job/money. Sorry your child is ill but it's just one of those things.

A cold ?

Get a grip OP.

What world do you live in ? Also your baby will need to develop immune systen through getting connin viruses 😢

Of course yabu. Like goes on with a cold. The only way your baby will build up any kind of immune system is to come in to contact with them.

Babies get colds - they need to!

It is horrible seeing them ill.
And it's pretty horrible being ill and having to work. As has been said before on here, viral illnesses vary, and sometimes people are too poorly to work but that doesn't mean we don't have to all keep going when we can. I'm on immunosuppressants and have been well for almost a fortnight after the last cold led to a bacterial chest infection. That's the longest I've been well for since September. I keep needing urgent bloods and I've had to take 3 days off which is enough that my employer has started formal absence proceedings.
I think you and DH have to be really careful - it's droplet spread from you two. Tissues, immediately binned , and wash hands with soap and water. Hope he gets well soon.

Did the OP ever come back and tell us what job she did that obviously allowed he to stay at home every time she had a cold?

I was also wondering what line of work OP is in!

Op - So your dh brought the cold into the house?! Surely you should both be looking at increasing his immunity system so he doesn't get colds so easily! I rarely get colds.

I'm a secondary school teacher and I don't actually get colds
Didn't expect to make everyone so angry with this thread- as I said, it was early morning stress with a poorly little babba.
Everyone is taking this very seriously. I just hate seeing my LO poorly and was grumbling about it in the night.

NHS worker here, really nasty colds going around here but we can't take time off and if we do non clinical duties who will look after patients.
Do we refuse to treat patients who have colds,flu?
Colds are a fact of life and we have some staff who have had to take time off sick but are back before fully well(3 episodes or9 days in a year and disciplinary meeting).