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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it’s grim to come into work when you have a cold?

170 replies

sunfloweryy · 26/02/2020 08:59

If you can easily work from home/take the day off sick?

I’ve been off work with a particularly nasty cold for the last couple of days. I feel better today, but still not great so I’ve logged on from home to work as I’m still coughing and sneezing.

Colleague has just sent me an IM to see how I was and told me he’s got a cold too but he’s been in office. He was trying to make me feel guilty for taking time off for sure, and it’s bothered me!

He has form for coming in to work when he’s ill, coughing and sneezing all over the place and we hot desk so it isn’t even possible to contain him to one area. I get that the world can’t stop for colds, but surely common sense dictates that if you are able to work from home or take some days off you do so? Especially with this coronavirus going around!

AIBU?

OP posts:
woodchuck99 · 26/02/2020 11:26

Even in hospital environments they say you should come in to work with a cold, the view of the manager is d&v, actual flu and chest infection stay home. Common cough and cold, carry on.

The NHS is terrible for this. I really really annoys me as someone who is immunosuppressed.

woodchuck99 · 26/02/2020 11:32

We're all picking them up from our kids, public transport- a hundred different ways. It's just not feasible to take time off with every cold.

I usually manage to not to pick them up from my children and public transport by just not getting to close contact. It's not very easy if you have to sit next to someone with bad cold at work though. It's interesting that those who say they would be off work all the time if they took time off with colds as those of us who work in offices where people will generally work at home the cold don't actually get sick as often. I get about one cold year if that.

ElinoristhenewEnid · 26/02/2020 11:34

At my dsis previous employers you were liable to be disciplined if you turned up for work sick - their attitude was if you are unwell with an infectious illness or otherwise unfit to work you should stay off until better. Would be turned away at the door if you arrived ill. Reduced sick leave considerably

heroineinahalfshell · 26/02/2020 11:34

I'm on my 3rd day off with a bad cold - I've actually been sick since Saturday. I'm also 15 weeks pregnant so not sure if that is making the illness worse. I called my boss today and apologised for taking a 3rd day off, he said to me "you've had no time off, just take the whole week" (I haven't taken a sick day since 2018). I feel guilty as it's "just a cold", but I am so relieved! I feel pathetic for being so ill with just a cold, but also thankful I have such an understanding workplace.
FYI, I am 100% sure I'll be doing some work from home between now and Monday - partly cos I'm going stir crazy, partly cos I've got stuff that has to be done before next week.

IntermittentParps · 26/02/2020 11:43

many companies don't allow WFH, many roles aren't workable from home either.
The OP's company DOES and her role IS.

Ferchrissakes.

Original poster
sunfloweryy · 26/02/2020 11:45

@Mrschainsawuk you really get a cold every single month? Hmm

OP posts:
ScatteredMama82 · 26/02/2020 11:48

OP isn't off sick, she has opted to work from home. Given the current issues with Coronavirus it beggars belief that anyone can say YABU.

mastertomsmum · 26/02/2020 12:01

Most workplaces only have a small allowance of days off sick per year. Doesn't accommodate colds very well if it's a bad winter for catching them.

At Sainsbury's it's something like 3 strikes and you are out. In my workplace it's 10 days.

HunterHearstHelmsley · 26/02/2020 12:02

Just because you have the option to work from home, it doesn't mean you have the set up to work from home. You can't assume because your workplace offers it that its necessarily feasible for everyone.

Thinkingabout1t · 26/02/2020 12:10

In China, people normally put on face masks when they have a cold, so they don’t infect other people. We should do the same.

It’s antisocial to take your virus to work or on public transport and spread if around — though an unhealthy culture of ‘presenteeism’ forces people to go in to work when they shouldn’t.

Redglitter · 26/02/2020 12:13

If you can work from.home great but theres no way I'd go off sick with a cold. It would be seriously frowned on if I did

contentedsoul · 26/02/2020 12:14

Dear God
Whatever happened to British Grit?
Off work because of a cold, pathetic.
Get a grip.

Alsohuman · 26/02/2020 12:17

If someone I managed took a sick day for a cold, their card would be marked. Chances are they’ve spread the infection before the symptoms appear anyway. There’s no way a cold makes you too ill to work.

Icecreamdiva · 26/02/2020 12:20

I didn’t like working from home when it was an option. If I’m in the office I just zone out and crack on with things but at home there are too many distractions - ‘I’ll just put some washing on, ooh look at that cobweb, I fancy a biscuit, I’ll just polish the hob while,I’m up, I need the loo, was that the postman?, HOW big is that credit card bill - I’ll just check my transactions., oh the washings finished, I’ll hang it on the airer,’ etc. So if i was well enough to work I’d always take office over home working. If I had a cold I dosed up with Daynurse so I wasn’t coughing and spluttering over my colleagues.

Nowadays my work is 85% client facing, some of whom may be suicidal. I’d have to be in a very bad way to cancel on them. Once again, Daynurse is my friend. I don’t think a cold is a reason to stay home.

QuimReaper · 26/02/2020 12:25

When I worked in an office I DESPISED people who came in with a streaming cold when it could be avoided. We had a good remote working setup for most staff, so excepting something unavoidable, I took a very dim view of their wanton disregard for everyone else's health. Sure, a cold won't kill you, but they're SUCH a pain in the arse, and tends to have more of an impact on peoples' social life than their work, so it's just a plain old dick move.

Alsohuman · 26/02/2020 12:32

I even work when I have the flu

No you don’t, it’s physically impossible. You can’t get out of bed.

IntermittentParps · 26/02/2020 12:32

Nowadays my work is 85% client facing, some of whom may be suicidal. I’d have to be in a very bad way to cancel on them. Once again, Daynurse is my friend. I don’t think a cold is a reason to stay home.
For you, perhaps not. The OP might not do client-facing work with suicidal people, though; have you considered that as a possibility?

HunterHearstHelmsley, the OP says her colleague WFH one day a week anyway, which strongly indicates that he DOES have the set-up to do so.

ChubbyMummy12 · 26/02/2020 12:41

I currently have a a sinus infection, a gum infection, laryngitis and a cold, I haven't got to the option to work from home, and I can't take sick leave as I've just returned to work after tome off due to stress (brother being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer) and different relative dying. I have no choice to go into work🤷‍♀️

JustInCaseCakeHappens · 26/02/2020 12:42

*I even work when I have the flu

No you don’t, it’s physically impossible. You can’t get out of bed.

that's another urban myth, I wish people could stop stating it as a fact.

You do realise that people react differently to the same thing, and not everyone is unconscious with flu, don't you? Not everyone has the luxury to stay in bed all day either, even if you have it bad but you have young children, you miraculously still find a way to get out of bed and look after them

But the "staying in bed" is nonsense.

ChocolateQuiltedShitPig · 26/02/2020 12:48

Lol do people actually take time off with a cold?!

Alsohuman · 26/02/2020 12:50

But the "staying in bed" is nonsense

It’s not. Flu completely knocks you out, it weakens you to the point whereby just crawling to the loo takes all your energy. There’s no miraculous act of willpower that can mitigate it. The urban myth is saying you’ve got flu when you’ve got a nasty cold virus.

NomDeDieu · 26/02/2020 12:52

I have to say I am getting more and more annoyed at people who say they have to stay at home for a cold (cold as in no fever, no major achyness, no need to sleep all day etc...).

@sunfloweryy I have a chronic illness. Most days I feel worse than you are today. But I am told I have to be at work. I am not unwell enough to qualify for PIP. Companies are suposed to make allowances but they often do the very minimum if that.
Today I am working even though I am struggling to go up the stairs (too much effort).
Many people with chronic illnesses are told the same because, you know, they are so likely to just be scroungers etc etc.

And then you have people who are well who go on about a cold and sneezing (how is that stopping you from working?) and how they cant be at work.

I absolutely hate the way one group (people who are well) is treated vs the other (people with chronic issues).
Maybe its time to have a similar framework for everyine. Eiher say to everyine they can stay at hoe for a few days to recover from a 'cold' or you ask them to dot he same than you ask people with chronic disease. In which case, just go to work and stop complaining.

Mrschainsawuk · 26/02/2020 13:12

Haha yeah I work in a softplay can't avoid it and have my own child

woodchuck99 · 26/02/2020 13:13

@NomDeDieu I'm sorry that you're forced to work however you ill feel but I don't think that justifies insisting that everyone else should be in the same position even if they have something that is infectious. I also have a chronic disease and I'm more than happy for people to stay home with her cold because if I catch it I could be seriously ill.

Sofonisba · 26/02/2020 13:14

Lol do people actually take time off with a cold?!

I take time off every chance I get Grin