To come into work so Ill

[creamcheeseandlox]

My boss has just come in and sat next to me. I said hi and in his own words "morning, I feel like death"! He is full of cold and had tissues, nose spray and lemsip all over his desk and is coughing and spluttering. I have so far this winter managed to avoid colds but am thinking I'll probably bloody catch his one now.

I'm not a shirker in any sense but if someone is that Ill i think it's disrespectful to come into a open plan office and proceed to spread germs all over the place. AIBU?

Do they get paid if they don't go in? I know many people who can't take a day off because otherwise they can't pay their bills.

Or if they've had time off in the past they're scared of triggering disciplinary action.

D&V? Unreasonable to go to work and spread it about. A cold? Reasonable, I wouldn't not go to work because I had a cold.

Yes we do get sick pay.

You shouldn't take time off just for a cold.

That's something. I guess he doesn't want to set a precedent for taking time off for a cold. If the boss does it, everyone else will think it's OK to.

A cold isn’t the end of the world, does he have his sickly man voice on?

If I could work from home with a cold I would but if that’s not possible then you should really go in.

Ridiculous. Everyone else will get sick. If the workplace has a policy of not being off with a cold then they’re stupid. A sick worker gets less done and now everyone will be sick.

He's not the boss boss but a line manager. I agree that usually colds aren't for taking time off but he is just sneezing g and coughing everywhere and is obviously suffering from man flu more than a run of the mill cold?

Whirliegig, it's a cold not Ebola.

Say to him "well best keep those germs to yourself so you don't spread it round everyone. You don't want half the office off sick do you?" Or words to that effect. If he isn't using tissues pointedly give them to him. If he leaves them on the desk make a point of telling him to put them down the toilet.

YABU

The trouble is most businesses use the Bradford system for absence management so not coming in for a cold or any other minor illness would mean sanctions that can lead to dismissal.

I've got to be literally bed bound or D&V to call in sick. I'm sorry if that causes issues for others but frankly keeping my job is more important than whether someone catches a cold from me.

Your line manager won't be exempt from absence management, he'd have to own the company for that to be the case.

I can just imagine turning up at the job centre and telling them I lost my job because I caught 6 colds in a year!!

I agree w you. My colleague came into work before Christmas "feeling like death". He struggled on to "heroically" achiebing not very much . Of course half the office was infected by then - 3 are still off now. I spent the week running up to Christmas first ill in bed then working from home - an option that he also had.

Ridiculous. Everyone else will get sick. If the workplace has a policy of not being off with a cold then they’re stupid.

Excellent! I will advise all my colleagues at school that our policy of not being off with a cold is stupid and now we can stay home when we inevitably get the sniffles. You know when Reception children start school and they catch every cold going, well 99% of the time their teachers also catch those colds. I can just imagine the uproar if they stayed off work every time they had a cold.

It is simply impractical to stay off work and school with every cold. He may get sick pay but I guarantee its only a certain amount of days per year, what happens in a months time when he's used it all for a cold and he's genuinely sick?

I’m actually with you on this OP. At least, if you’re going to come to work, don’t breathe all over everyone. Is there a work from home option?

** Yes, we can work from home. And also today is a admin day so could easily have been done from home.

I agree that usually colds aren't for taking time off but he is just sneezing g and coughing everywhere and is obviously suffering from man flu more than a run of the mill cold?

Sneezing and coughing are completely normal symptoms of a run-of-the-mill cold

I agree with you, I can't stand people making me ill and playing the martyr.

You can catch a cold though when it is at the very beginning sore throat stage so a bit difficult to take at least a week off which is how long they generally last.

YANBU especially if he could work from home and would get paid anyway. I've no time for martyrs, trooping on with their runny noses, coughing over everyone. Colds affect some people more than others e.g. I have asthma and a bad cold can completely floor me.

That's right bombardier if the boss drags himself in it sets a culture that everyone else must to do the same.

Maybe a cold isn't that bad in itself but passing germs onto others is inexcusable. The whole department could go down with it - and probably will, all due to one man who insisted on going in.

I can't stand people making me ill and playing the martyr.

He's not playing the Martyr. He's going to work like every other human being on the planet does when they have a cold and a job.

If you were to generally worry about people making you ill then you would never leave the house, quite a lot of illnesses are contagious before you even know your poorly.

Big difference to the rates of virus shedding in the early stages of infection (the bit where you feel awful, have a sore throat and are running a temperature) to the following weeks when you cough it out.

DH's cold over the Xmas break lasted about 10 days though, workplaces would be empty, you can get a cold from anywhere and I didn't catch DHs, fortunately. You can get a cold going shopping and touching stuff.

This is what the NHS have to say:

"The common cold is infectious from a few days before your symptoms appear until all of the symptoms are gone. Most people will be infectious for around two weeks."

It sucks, and I hate being around snotty sniffy coughy people but we can't all have two weeks off work a couple of times a year.

With your update that you are allowed to work from home, I'd say you're not being unreasonable to wish he'd taken that option.

But if that wasn't an option I'd say that normally a cold isn't worth calling in sick for, and that people should go in, but be considerate (using tissues, not leaving the tissues around, not leaning close to someone to look at something their showing you on their computer etc.)