To think that I CAN use cold remedies in the office?

[MrsElizabethShelby]

I have been told that I cannot use olbas oil/vaporub in the office due to a staff member who has asthma.

Staff remember sits approximately 40 feet away from me.

I understand no spraying of aerosols perfumes (already a rule) but olbas oil/vaporub to help with cold symptoms? Really?

AIBU to state that I am forced to go home ill if I cannot use things to ease my symptoms.to enableme to work?

Oh right. Sorry. I didn't realise.

They both stink so a combination of the two could be quite overwhelming I imagine. You don't need to use these things to combat your cold there are a number of alternatives. You have been told it irritates someone's asthma so just stop. How would you feel if it irritated her to the point she had a massive asthma attack? They make it so she can't breathe, not just a stuffy nose like you, she literally can't breathe when it gets bad. Who's health issue is more important? A cold or the risk of death.

@Passthecherrycoke ever seen a child in respiratory failure from cold and flu? I work in intensive care and it’s literally people spreading germs in this manner that is the reason we have cold and flu epidemics - people coming to work sick in large open plan offices where people are forced to spend 8hrs a day together, then go home pick up their kids and their immature immune systems can’t cope. I hope if you have kids you don’t need to get ‘hysterical’ about that sort of thing in their lifetime.

No but that’s irrelevant to the fact people can’t phone in sick with a cold, unless of course the cold renders them too unwell to be capable of working.

@Passthecherrycoke

No but that’s irrelevant to the fact people can’t phone in sick with a cold, unless of course the cold renders them too unwell to be capable of working.

Not sure what your point? Obviously if you're too ill to work because you have a cold then you call in sick because you have a cold

Because AllyBamma is saying whenever people have a cold they should phone in sick and stay at home for the duration of the cold.
That clearly isn’t realistic for minor colds that can easily be worked through

Clear enough now?

Well, you never said 'minor cold', @Pass . It really does depend on the severity of the cold, which wasn't clear from your post.

It wasn’t my post though was it? It was Allybammas post staying that people who go to work with colds are scum.

I don’t think you’re following properly

I'm referring to your post below:

She’s got a cold. You can’t stay off work for a cold.

You and Allybamma have taken extreme opposing views.

I have no idea what you’re taking about

No point in discussing if you don't even know what you've posted upthread

Have you read the Op? There is no point discussing really, we aren’t talking about the same things at all.

Assuming that the smoking is true, there are substances in cigarette smoke that reduce the sensitivity of the lungs to cigarette smoke as a whole when it passes through the filter tips - but not to the sort of constituent chemicals contained in Vicks or Olbas Oil.

In addition, her body might not identify cigarette smoke as an alien substance, but does react strongly to those chemicals in your oils.

Kind of like being allergic to Horse Chestnut and Rapeseed pollen, but not daisies or animal fur, they are completely different substances/allergens; somebody insisting upon stinking the place out with a Impulse or Lynx couldn't justify it by saying 'she's got cats'.

I think your ‘cold remedies’ are weird for work to be frank. As if you’re at work rubbing vapourub on your chest and sniffing an olbas oil hanky - that’s just gross and inappropriate for work.

Most people just take inoffensive tablets, cough syrup, nasal sprays etc. Nothing with a strong odour or that would otherwise be detectable by colleagues like this. Really you should be using these things in the bathroom, or find an alternative! You have now been told that these products are an irritant for your colleague, so you have no choice but to change your ways - their needs trump yours unfortunately.

Go outside to have a good olbas sniff every now and again?

I wish people would stop saying 'just' take a decongestant tablet. It may not be an option for the OP. Not everyone can take them, and they can have serious interactions with many other medications.

Bambamber, spraying perfumes etc on public transport should be banned. It's worse than food or drink. I've been shut in a bus with twats spraying themselves and then had to walk home from the bus station with a banging migraine. It comes on very quickly if I'm exposed to triggering fragrances.

I have worked with someone who was allergic to perfume. She had to travel at different hours and if she was to be in a meeting we were pre warned. Frankly, yadbu, this is not a manager being a PIA, but a manager making reasonable adjustments.

If she smokes that is her addiction, but your use of Olbas Oil is stated as a trigger, so heed it. This is akin to giving someone peanut butter when they are allergic to nuts. Don't be an arse, your cold will soon be finished, her asthma will not.

I wish people would stop saying 'just' take a decongestant tablet. It may not be an option for the OP. Not everyone can take them, and they can have serious interactions with many other medications
Then someone can go to their GP and ask them for some medicines that they can take.

Most people can take over the counter cold and flu medicines.
Even if the OP has a reason they can't take them, some smelly oils arent the solution and are unreasonable in the workplace.

Just me, or is anyone else visualising Vera, she of the permanent cold and permanent hypochondria , from the old Giles cartoons ?

Too many permanents !

Yes Jellyfish!

@Jellyfish I wish I were that skinny!

But there’s nothing sexier than stinking of Vaporub..

@billywilliamv ? Wierdo