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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Shop assistant coughing

174 replies

NameChangeAgain2 · 06/11/2020 20:56

I've just been to the local one shop stop to get milk (missing from our supermarket delivery). The shop assistant, wearing her mask on her chin, burst into a coughing fit half way through scanning. She turned away and drank some water then pulled her mask up before turning back and told me 'it's not Corona, people have been asking all day, I'm just full of a cold'. She looked really sweaty.

I'm so upset. I'm shielding a relative and haven't been to the local shop since February.

Aibu to think she shouldn't be at work if she's coughing all over the place to the point people have been asking her is if she has the virus all day? I have no idea if she's had a test, she might just be assuming it's a cold. We've been so careful. I want to phone the shop and ask if she's had a test, if not I still have chance to leave the house now before possibly getting sick and passing it on to the shielding relative. I also want to complain that they were wearing their masks on their chins. What's the point that isn't helping anything!

OP posts:
BrummyMum1 · 06/11/2020 23:39

I think you have to treat people with the respect you’d expect to be treated with in turn. If she said she hasn’t got covid, you need to assume she either has a health condition or has had a negative test.

BanditoShipman · 06/11/2020 23:42

I don’t understand that a pp lifts their trouser leg to wee???

cabbageking · 06/11/2020 23:48

They don't have to wear masks but you do.
She is allowed to work with a cough or even a cold.

you are assuming she has not had the test and she does not have to share this with you either way.

You are thinking the worse perhaps?

StormTreader · 06/11/2020 23:56

Even if it is just a nasty cold or a different virus, people should still be wearing masks because whatever it is, I don't want it and I wouldn't want to give mine to you!
Imagine how much we could cut down "the usual annual flu deaths" and annual nasty colds if people were wearing masks to not spread it as much.

Duemarch2021 · 06/11/2020 23:59

How are people saying OP is being unreasonable!???? It is mandatory to wear masks and this woman had it on her chin when she knows she has a cough! The whole point in the masks is to cath any coughs/sneezes/ spitting when talking etc and se blatantly coughed all over the place!! OP said she looked sweaty -i bet she hasnt been tested... and anyone saying "she shouldn't have to wear a mask if shes so ill with a cold because she wont be able to breathe" well she shouldn't be in work then! Its disgraceful and yes phone the shop and report it .. ask is she had a test

PickAChew · 07/11/2020 00:01

I cough all the fucking time. I've made more effort to keep my allergies under control, this year, as they would worry others more than me but it is quite, involuntary.

NaturalStudy · 07/11/2020 00:02

@duemarch2021 It is not mandatory to wear a mask where there is a protective screen in place!

DressingGownofDoom · 07/11/2020 00:05

How would you like it if someone rang your employer to ask if you've had medical tests? She told you she's just got a cold so presumably that's her saying of saying 'I have been tested and it's not covid' you really need to get your anxiety under control a bit.

Leannethom85 · 07/11/2020 00:08

It's the ones who don't display symptoms that are spreading it..
She may have just had her flu shot or genuinely does have a cold, if she had full blown corona trust me she wouldn't be sitting at the till.

Duemarch2021 · 07/11/2020 00:09

Urgh everyone saying "omg its just a cold get a grip" ... yep could be! Could also not be... is is something that we are all happy to risk? No.. that's the point in the mask she had on her chin Hmm OP is looking after vulnerable people so is very anxious but unfortunately HAD to go out for an essential item after shielding for weeks.... how anxious must she feel when her 1 trip out she gets spluttered on.... yes she can work with a cold but she should simply have had her mask over her face not chin!!!

Duemarch2021 · 07/11/2020 00:11

@NaturalStudy

Fair enough.. but if you work with customers in these times with a massive cold and cough.. wouldn't you just put your mask on.. she had it on her chin
...

ProudAuntie76 · 07/11/2020 00:11

@DressingGownofDoom

How would you like it if someone rang your employer to ask if you've had medical tests? She told you she's just got a cold so presumably that's her saying of saying 'I have been tested and it's not covid' you really need to get your anxiety under control a bit.
Except she didn’t ring her employer did she? It was the shop assistant that herself confirmed on the phone that her cough is a result of recent Covid. Op was right to be concerned...it’s a Covid cough but most likely not contagious anymore.

Or did you not read the thread?

Aridane · 07/11/2020 00:12

[quote DramaLlama12]@fittata because every single year without fail since I can remember its the same symptoms , same time of year starts off with a headache for around 3 days , then A sore throat , then I know the next symptom is swollen glands around 4 days after , then a steaming runny nose , for.about a week then lastly the cough which I pray doesnt go to my chest which it then does. Then up to 3 months later all gone with the cough being the last to go .
I could set my calendar by it
Been the same since early 20's
So unless I've had covid for the last 25 years I know mine is the common cold[/quote]
God help us all

Aridane · 07/11/2020 00:12

@Duemarch2021

Urgh everyone saying "omg its just a cold get a grip" ... yep could be! Could also not be... is is something that we are all happy to risk? No.. that's the point in the mask she had on her chin Hmm OP is looking after vulnerable people so is very anxious but unfortunately HAD to go out for an essential item after shielding for weeks.... how anxious must she feel when her 1 trip out she gets spluttered on.... yes she can work with a cold but she should simply have had her mask over her face not chin!!!
Exactly!
GabsAlot · 07/11/2020 00:15

its rude to cough without covering yur mouth regardless-not having covid isnt an excuse to do as you please

NameChange84 · 07/11/2020 00:18

Do people realise that if they can’t be bothered to actually read a thread, that they can at least click on see all to see OPs updates?

NEWSFLASH, it wasn’t a cold (or COPD or sinusitis etc etc) and the shop assistant admitted she was coughing since having Covid last month.

And she WAS in the wrong to have her mask round her chin. People aren’t thick, we know coughs and colds are around, that doesn’t mean it’s perfectly acceptable to be unhygienic and wear masks in a way that will put others at risk.

DenimDrift · 07/11/2020 00:30

She had it a month ago.? So was tested?

I’d not believe the ‘no longer contagious’ part, we don’t know enough to say she is 100% clear now

jessstan1 · 07/11/2020 00:31

@GabsAlot

its rude to cough without covering yur mouth regardless-not having covid isnt an excuse to do as you please
I thought the op said the girl turned around, ie had her back to the op, to cough.

Anyway it sounds from the updates as though she had had covid a little while ago and has a residual cough.

DenimDrift · 07/11/2020 00:33

As for her mask.... I’m guessing her job is fairly physical? Shop staff are suffering. I’m on a week off right now and realising I can take deep breaths

When I’m working and in the evenings after work I find I can’t breathe properly. Can’t take a deep breath in even with mask off for a few hours at home

I’m a bit worried about this

jessstan1 · 07/11/2020 00:34

@DenimDrift

She had it a month ago.? So was tested?

I’d not believe the ‘no longer contagious’ part, we don’t know enough to say she is 100% clear now

I wonder about that. My cousin and her partner both had Covid-19 a few weeks ago and are taking part in a programme in which they are tested once a week for a while, then once a month. He is still testing positive (she is negative), but was told he was no longer contagious. It's likely the shop assistant is no longer contagious. Well I would say almost certainly because otherwise she surely wouldn't be at work.
myhobbyisouting · 07/11/2020 00:36

My god @DramaLlama12 have you heard yourself?

You insist you've had a cold every year but are that ill educated that you don't know they were caused by a variety of coronavirus'.

You are convinced you had it "back in March". Hmm, unlikely as only around 4-5% of the population had had it then and they were very concentrated. What makes you so special?

Why do you cock your leg to piss as you cough? That is totally unrelated to any of this discussion but Confused

Vivana · 07/11/2020 00:46

@NameChangeAgain2

Its also goes for Customers to the amount of dirty ones I saw on a daily basis when I worked in a supermarket. Some also stinking with bo and urine and coughing over staff

Leannethom85 · 07/11/2020 01:14

I wear my mask 12 hours a day at work, I'm around covid positive patients , I sneeze, I cough and the only time I take my mask off is to eat or catch a breath in a smelly sluice room. I then get changed into my everyday clothes to come home just so people outside don't catch germs, I don't question other people who don't wear masks and I certainly don't look upon people with suspicion everytime they cough or sneeze, I also have a vulnerable kid at home whose asthmatic, again ill repeat its not the ones who sneeze cough or have a sore throat you worry about its the ones who display no symptoms at all that are spreading it

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 07/11/2020 01:17

The thing is people have been coughing long before Covid. We can't all start freaking out every time someone coughs.

Stripesnomore · 07/11/2020 01:34

You can’t just decide not to go to work if you are well enough to attend and are out of the isolation period; you would get the sack. So YABU to expect her not to go to work.

YANBU about the mask on the chin. I am sick of seeing people doing this. It is grim.

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