OCD around germs.. and someone's come into work REALLY unwell..

[tensofhundreds]

So as the title says. I have a severe OCD around germs, getting unwell, vomiting, anything to do will illness. I do speak to my GP and councillor on a regular basis to help control this.

This morning I've got into work, and my colleague who sits opposite me is really unwell.
He said he's caught it from his wife and children, they're all really unwell with flu like symptoms. He's coughing, spluttering, snotty and runny nose which he's constantly blowing, eyes are streaming and he said he feels 'warmer than usual' and his throat is begging to burn up.
I don't know If im being over dramatic because I know I do sometimes feel a bit irrationally about illnesses, but surely he shouldn't be here?
He did say he's tested daily and doesn't have Covid (thank goodness) but he's still very unwell.

I am going away on a small family break to our family villa at the end of next week and am really trying my best to lay low - going to work and going straight home so as to rest and protect myself and my family as much as possible before we travel.. I just have an awful feeling I'm going to catch this horrible virus.

Am I being unreasonable 😥

Stressful. Wear a face mask, use your hand gel and I’d put a squirt of that first response stuff up each nostril. It’s all you can do really. If it an conciliation OP, if you do get it, it need not spoil your whole holiday and afterwards your body will probably have a good load of antibodies floating around. We can’t avoid all germ risk sadly, as someone could just as easily sneeze over you in a store and you’d get ill.

Go and have a word with your manager. Hopefully they will do the kind and sensible thing and send him home on full pay.

OP, I know people often say counsellor as a catch all but do you see a CBT therapist for your OCD? You need to be seeing a therapist who works behaviourally for this condition.

You are focussing in this post on your emotion and upset that this man's behaviour goes against your rules for avoiding germs (and of course a lot of us would be pissed off that someone brings their germs in to spread around the office and he has prioritised his family over his colleagues when he is set up to work from home ).
If the guy doesn't have Covid and it's just a cold and none of you in your family are immune suppressed, catching an icky cold that takes a normal course and passes would be a good thing to show your OCD that it over exagerates danger to you and you are not going to be bullied by it.

Maybe ask your manager if you could sit somewhere else today?

He should be isolating at home until he's done a PCR test as he has Covid symptoms, including a cough. If he's testing himself daily then he is almost certainly doing so via a LFT test which aren't as reliable for testing people with symptoms. The whole point of LFTs is to catch asymptomatic cases.

The delta variant presents like a cold - my initial symptoms were headache, sinus pain, snuffly nose and a general bleurgh feeling. The cough didn't come until about 5 days in and the loss of smell a out a week in. I never had a temperature. The Covid Monitoring team said the guidance on symptoms to trigger a PCR test needed updating as so many people now don't have the old 3 symptoms, or don't develop them until later on.

None of this alters the fact that OP's colleague has one of the 3 symptoms to trigger a PCR test and so needs to get one and isolate until he gets the result.

I'd hoped that the pandemic would have made people realise it's not OK to go into work if you have an illness like a cold or flu that can be easily transmitted.

It's illegal to deliberately or recklessly infect someone with HIV and this situation is no different. Even if it were "just" a cold, viruses affect different people in different ways. What might "just" be a sore throat to one person could mean another gets seriously ill.

I'd hoped too that employers would realise that it's better in the long run if one person stays off work sick than them come in, do a half-arsed job, infect others who then do a half-arsed job because they're now ill too.

If you're sick, you need to stay at home. End of story. To do this fully-paid sick leave of up to 4 weeks per year should be mandatory. In the long run it's more productive for the company as they will gain more in having healthy staff at work than they'd lose in paying sick leave.

If he is really so unwell, he shouldn't be there.

However if you are OCD about germs its possible you are perceiving more than is really there. My colleague is similar to you. She once came fuming to me about a member of our team being "massively unwell and spreading germs". I was sat opposite him all morning. He had a slightly red nose which he blew four or five times. He coughed once or twice. He was otherwise fine.

Sometimes your own anxiety makes you feel things are worse than they are.

He has a cough through which is one of the 3 orriginal symptoms

Per the official guidance it's not just any cough. It's a "new, continuous cough", which is defined as follows:
this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

Its not just because you heard someone cough or clear their throat a couple of times.

Also blame your employer.what do you expect people to do when they are not paid when off sick?

For many people they are going to struggle to pay the bills/buy food. A day off work at 8 hours living wage is about £70. If his budget is tight that's going to completely stuff him.

It's illegal to deliberately or recklessly infect someone with HIV and this situation is no different.

Are you fucking kidding? HIV is in incurable, life limiting condition which ultimately often progresses to AIDS & death. Don't compare it to a cold.

@DeepaBeesKit

It's illegal to deliberately or recklessly infect someone with HIV and this situation is no different.

Are you fucking kidding? HIV is in incurable, life limiting condition which ultimately often progresses to AIDS & death. Don't compare it to a cold.

This.

Usually I'd just put up with it even though I hate it when people come to work coughing and spluttering but with covid sadly LFTs are wholly unreliable and so I do think people should be getting PCR tests if they are unwell and want to go to work still.

I work in a school and the number of negative LFTs and positive PCRs is high for both staff and pupils.

@ShowOfHands

Half of dd's school have colds, most of my colleagues have coughs and colds. If we all stayed at home, our workforce would be decimated and the school would be empty.

It's a tough one really because a common cold and really, I'd expect people to just get on with it assuming they feel able, but somebody feeling terrible who can't take time off is a different matter. As much for their own wellbeing as the comfort of others.

Rubbish.

Logic dictates that if you stay off with a cold, you won't be spreading it around to your colleagues so everyone else WON'T be off.

If staff came in with nasty cold symptoms, I always sent them home but in my organisation you got full pay when off short term sick.

Logic dictates that if you stay off with a cold, you won't be spreading it around to your colleagues so everyone else WON'T be off.

This isnt really true as many viruses spread in the days before symptoms develop. That's why even if people stay off when they are asymptomatic, things do still spread.

I mean symptomatic!

So he is selfish for going to work to ensure he can provide for his family and not lose a days work?
I’m sure if he could have stayed home he would have 🤔.

So ironic that people are calling him selfish because THEY don’t want to get ill. We all get ill, just get over yourselves.

Op gas already said he can work from home and normally does but has choosen to come in anyway with covid symptoms

He should be getting a PCR test and self isolating until he has a negative result. No way should he be in the office with a cough and a possible temperature.

Daily lateral flow testing is all well and good but if he has symptoms a LF test is not enough.

We're all facing a hard winter with colds and respiratory illnesses.

Time for our immune systems to toughen back up.

He should have worked from home. Kidss being home ill in another room wouldnt matter.
Also if not covid most kids would be in school with a cold.

This is why I hated working in offices. I am immuno suppressed and people would come in with all sorts. In that case we did get full sick pay but they didn't want to look bad to management. I ended up in hospital due to someone struggling in with flu. But obviously I took steps and now work from home as there are situations when people just can't afford to lose a day's pay.

I will say though that I had many negative LFT but a positive PCR and this happened with many colleagues too, so this would concern me. I do get both sides though as when my partner got covid he received no sick pay and council wouldn't pay the 500 as we aren't on any benefits. Screwed us financially.

He's a selfish twat.

And if he's symptomatic he should be having a PCR.

It is selfish, as he has the ability to WFH
Even before the pandemic, we could work from home, and managers would strongly suggest it to people who came in with cold symptoms.

I think some posters are completely missing the point that the Delta variant presents as a typical cold.

Therefor, the work colleague should have had a PCR test. TBH, I thought that everyone knew that a lateral flow test was the incorrect test to do if presenting with symptoms, but clearly a lot of people still need to be educated about this.