AIBU to go to work tomorrow with bad cold?

[suitcaseofdreams]

I have a bad cold, I’m not at death’s door by any means although I do feel pretty fuzzy headed. I’m sneezing a lot and my nose is running (ugh) despite dosing myself up with paracetamol etc.

Tomorrow I’m supposed to be giving a presentation to about 30 people at work. My team, not clients. Not business critical although will be tricky to re-schedule quickly as so many people invited.

Would I be more unreasonable to cancel at short notice, or more unreasonable to go and potentially pass on my cold to everyone else?

People seriously can't stay home every time they have a cold, especially if it means sick leave or no pay. But I do think the work place should accommodate employees more and encourage home working in these cases. If that's not an option OP I'd definitely still go in.

worridmum
You can't get through a working day with it coming out both ends. That's too unwell to come to work.
If I'm unwell then I know I'm too unwell to work. I don't need to ask DH or MN because I know when I'm too unwell to work.

If anyone's saying I've got a cold and feel a bit rubbish should I go into work, it usually means they know fine well they could manage to be in work (a day off with a cold won't make it better). They're just hoping people will froth about presenteeism and get the hyperbole about knowingly infecting people being a legal issue so they can justify the duvet day that theyve already decided they want to take.

The problem is at a place we worked someone did come in with DV and infected her entire department as everyone but her was then off (she had recovered) the company had to change policy because they could not discipline her for effectively closing down her entire department.(she was sent home when people caught her in the loo she told no one before hand but by then the damage was done)

What was worse 4 clients also got her DV i do not know what she did to infect us all but she managed it.

Room/Requirement " My ward would cripple" SO staff are encouraged to work regardless of a bad cold? to nurse patients susceptible to germs, vulnerable and already unwell!
So you're talking about the national NHS staffing shortage is the responsibility of ill staff ?
AND it isn't your ward, it's the patient's ward!
Be the manager that staff want to work for, not stay at home with a cold. Nurse = CARE giver.

worridmum
Then that's on the person working with S&D and irrelevant to people having the sniffles.

It's not right to expect the world to stop every time someone gets a cold. I'd have missed half of last half term if I stayed off with a cold. Of course if I was really unwell with an especially bad cold, chest infection or flu then I'd be off work. Then again I wouldn't need to ask someone if I should have the day off because I'd know i was ill.

You're not going to pass on a cold standing at the front of the room giving a presentation.

I would go equipped with tissues and alcohol gel and be careful about hand washing. If you feel really unwell, give the presentation and answer any questions then go straight home again.

It's not 'her' dv.

If I had just a cold I wouldn’t be off work. I feel awful. Taking paracetamol and ibuprofen and still feel terrible. Got a drs appt in an hour to check it’s not a chest infection as I’m immunosuppressed too.

You can’t stay at home for a cold. Totally jobsworth to claim that you can’t come in and spread germs (funnily enough have heard this exact comment at every sickness warning meeting I’ve had)

However if you’re too ill to work, regardless of the source of illness, of course you should stay off

(Personally I would go in though because who will give the presentation?)

Where do people work that they can stay off work every time they have a cold and not get sacked?

Every job I've had I'd have been on disciplinary if I'd stayed off with a cold. Unless it's something like d&v or flu I've had to go to work. I've never had a job with sick days or been able to work from home and can't afford time off for colds with no pay.

Same with kids and school with all the threads over winter moaning about kids with coughs and colds going to school and passing it on. If I kept my kids off for that they'd hardly be at school from October to March.

agentdaisy
Coughs, colds and snuffles are part of life. Same for kids at school.

There's no need for kids to be off school with colds. I have a few boxes of tissues in class and hand gel. They can drink water and take cough sweets.
If they're unwell then they shouldn't be in.

Common sense should prevail but as ever you get a mixture of presentee martyrs and piss takers who want a duvet day.