To be annoyed by what I call 'Workplace Martyrs'?

[SapphireSeptember]

Because I'm feeling rather cross right now! The ones who come in coughing and spluttering everywhere (for fuck's sake, cover your mouth!) and looking like death warmed up. "Oh, it's only a cold!"
Reasons this annoy me...

1. I work with two people with compromised immune systems. One of them is a WM herself, and made herself really ill by coming into work when she shouldn't have, resulting in a hospital stay. Still hasn't learnt, and still comes into work when she's really ill.
2. Someone I know is currently undergoing radiotherapy. If I get a cold I have to avoid them, because I don't want to pass my germs on.
3. Yes it's only a cold, but colds make me really ill for some reason, and I'm sick of taking time off work because they won't.
4. Where we work requires both handling food and dealing with customers, a lot of whom are elderly. They don't want your germs either.
5. This notion that they're the only reason the place is still running. I'm sure it won't fall down around our ears if you stay in bed for a couple of days. They also like to inform everyone that they haven't been off sick in ages, as though those of us who have are guilty of some moral failing.
6. I blame this lot for my current cough/sore throat. Flanges! If I get properly ill I am NOT going to be happy.

🤷‍♀️ Damned if you do damned if you don’t in my place. If you take time off for a cold people think your throwing a sickie, if you don’t they complain you are bringing in germs.

YABU. You can’t miss work over a sodding cold ffs.

You can’t take days off work because of a cold!!

In my job-you’d be facing interviews with occy health for that.

YABU. I think expecting people to take time off work for a cold is unreasonable. Tummy trouble - absolutely stay the hell away - but colds are just part of winter.

Not encouraging taking time off with an infectious disease that leaves people too knackered to wrk is a stupid way for a workplace to run itself.

Ill people at work results in less work done than one person removing themself for two-three days to recover.

Aren't you at your most infectious before the symptoms really show? I think as long as you're careful not to cough and sneeze over people and food, it's not practicable to stay off work with a cols.

Goodness, could you imagine how many Notice of Concerns would start being issues if everyone took time off for a cold?

Also - why do you have to take time off for a cold if everyone else has one is well enough to come into work? Have you thought about addressing whether there is an underlying issue or if you are just a hypochondriac?

I’ve been going to work the past 2 weeks with a cold. I was streaming the first 2 days, but it was just a cold. I kept my hands clean, sneezed into tissues and disposed of them properly after a big blow. Life goes on. I didn’t expect anyone to feel sorry for me either, I just got on with it.

It infuriates me when people share their germs. Stay away from the work place if you are contagious!

Flanges?

I hate this too - same with people sending their kids to school coughing and sneezing or going to the shops and coughing all over the food.

If you can avoid going to places when you have germs that can be passed on then you should do so.

What's a Notice of Concern?

Jobs are weird.

It it's just a runny nose, then go, if it's making you feel ill and unproductive, don't!

I don’t know, everywhere I’ve worked if I’ve called in and said “sorry, cold” management are awful about it, but if I come in and get sent home because they see how awful I feel they’re more sympathetic?

Seriously people, you can still go to work with a cold

Have been up all night with this cold. I have a fever as well as a runny nose. I'm going to call in sick tomorrow because 1) I'll be utterly useless so what's the point of going in and infecting everyone else, 2) I'm asthmatic so am trying to avoid it going to my chest - colds tend to affect me more than people without a lung condition and 3) I'm pregnant and frankly my health is more important to me than being a martyr right now.

There's a big difference between the sniffles (where I will just suck it up and go to work) and a bad cold which is physically debilitating. I haven't had any time off since returning to work after some emergency bowel surgery back in June/July so I don't think I'm taking the piss if I feel genuinely ill in this occasion. A cold isn't always just the sniffles.

Yabu.

Not about not covering your mouth when you cough though.

Workplaces seem to be populated by 3 distinct groups:
The martyr- tbh few and far between
The takes-a-day-off-for anything. (Obviously this group hates the Martyr because the Martyr makes THEM look like slackers)
The normal common or garden worker like most of us. Wouldn't dream of taking time off for a cold unless accompanied by secondary infection/fever etc.
(Also hated by the Tadofa group)

I sympathise OP and hope you feel better soon!

Colds knock me out too and always verge into something like flu-territory and last for weeks - god knows why, but it drives me mad, so it's terrifying when someone just plonks themselves down at work sneezing everywhere.

However, I think people who just find them quite annoying will never understand how debilitating they can be for others, and can't justify avoiding work because of them.

I'm with you OP. I fucking hate being around contagious people. So selfish of them

YABU

I have been suffering with a head cold (blocked ears, nose etc rather than coughing and sneezing) for about a week now. No way would I take a week off for it - I suspect my Y11 and Y13 classes wouldn't be too pleased with having supply for a week!

Colds do the rounds in winter and sometimes, you just have to plus on or else you would never be at work.

There's a difference between having a cold or flu

At my workplace we would get a written warning on either the third incidence of illness in 12 month period (even if only a day each time), or 9 days in total (could be just one or two absences . People daren't take time off for colds in case they have something else at a later stage that totally debilitates them and they trigger a warning. Imagine you have a 1 day absence for a cold, 1 day for a migraine....then you hurt your back or properly twist your ankle - even 1 more day for that would trigger a warning, subsequent warnings can lead to dismissal. This is in the Public Sector (UK).

To avoid this, most people use annual leave if they want to stay at home with minor illnesses. It's a pain as uses up your leave but we have a scheme where we can buy more back so in effect we pay for our own colds. . Or we 'work from home' or come into work and sniff!

YABU but I understand why you are pissed off.

My work uses the Bradford score system for managing absence, so there is no way that people would take time off for a cold.

Do you get sick pay at work? We only get SSP at my workplace and I've had to avoid having medical treatment because the treatment would make me temporarily worse (before getting better) to the point that I'd be signed off because I can't afford to lose a fortnight's pay. Manager knows this and thinks I'm doing the right thing.

My condition isn't infectious, but management practices can 100% affect how people deal with their own health.

If everyone called in sick when they had a cold there would be hardly anyone at work in the winter.

Having the sniffles and a sore throat is not a reason to call in sick... We have medicines that can help with cope with those minor symptoms, and sorry but they are minor as much as they are unpleasant.