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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Fed up with unvaccinated colleague isolating

799 replies

Peevedcolleague · 12/11/2021 16:40

Name changed 'cos I'll probably get slated but aibu to be pissed off about a colleague self isolating yet again while the rest of us have to carry on and pick up the pieces?

A new colleague chose not to be jabbed and is now facing numerous isolation periods at home on full pay where the rest of us have to carry on and cover her workload. Nature of the job means she's likely to be a close contact fairly regularly.

Even if she changed her mind and gets jabbed tomorrow, it'll be 10 weeks minimum before she's exempt from isolation so this could happen several more times yet.

Aibu to feel resentful and wish she bloody well got jabbed like the rest of us?

OP posts:
JesusIsAnyNameFree · 12/11/2021 18:29

Or are you one of the types that think people off work with things like depression are taking the piss too

Are you saying depression is a choice?

girlmom21 · 12/11/2021 18:29

@XenoBitch nice leap

Warmduscher · 12/11/2021 18:29

I meant in the first part describing who should have the vaccine.

Rainbowunicorn76 · 12/11/2021 18:30

@ItsmyaddressIsntit

It’s her body and her choice

Nothing to do with you

You wouldn’t moan if a colleague got pregnant and needed multiple days off due to sickness or complications then had maternity leave would you ?

Or if another colleague sustained a sporting injury from a hobby and needed to be off for physio or surgery etc

It is something to do with op if she's the one doing her work though? And yes ok I'd be fine with pregnancy related but if a colleague repeatedly had time off because they chose to do a hobby that left them with injuries..... that would piss me off too.
AlohaMolly · 12/11/2021 18:31

Do you know why she hasn’t been vaccinated?

My DP hasn’t been vaccinated. He’s 40, pretty fit, looks ‘normal.’ He suffers from anaphylaxis due to allergies so couldn’t have the first vaccine.

He also suffers from huge chemical sensitivities due to a bad reaction to anti depressants he’s been on. He works in the outdoors and can tell the level of pollution in the sea by how bad his hives are. He can break out in a rash from someone’s particularly strong body spray.

You wouldn’t know any of that, though, because he doesn’t tell anyone about it. He would say he’s unvaccinated through choice because his medical history is no one else’s business.

XenoBitch · 12/11/2021 18:31

[quote girlmom21]@XenoBitch nice leap [/quote]
You said so yourself that...

It's what people have done for years

What do you mean by that?

kowari · 12/11/2021 18:33

YABU, blame the nonsensical rules not her.
Does this still apply if someone who hasn't had a jab has had covid in the last six months? If someone is six months post second jab do they have to start isolating as a close contact again?

nathanandfanny · 12/11/2021 18:33

@rainbowdashsneeze

This has just happened to me. I have had one vaccine I was medically advised not to have the second due to the reaction I had, my eldest child became ill with covid and needed me to care for her so I would have worked from home home whether I was double vaccinated or not then my vulnerable child caught it and then I caught it we have all been very poorly. I have been working from home/on sick now for 2.5 weeks and my isolation doesn't end until Wednesday. My colleagues will have had to pick up some of my work and I would feel very hurt if my colleagues thought this behind my back.
Your situation is completely different! You are making a choice based on medical advice from your actual GP. Not off conspiracy theorists in the internet
doublemonkey · 12/11/2021 18:33

YABU. She didn't make up the rules (which are dumb in any case).

AlohaMolly · 12/11/2021 18:33

@JesusIsAnyNameFree

My workplace also has a policy that says if you’re vaccinated and a close contact, you stay away from the office

Apples and oranges, isn't it?

I’m probably being dense, but I don’t really understand what you mean?
Soontobe60 · 12/11/2021 18:34
  1. How do you know she’s being paid?
  2. How do you know if she is clinically vulnerable or not?
  3. How do you know she isn’t doing a load of work whilst she’s at home?
  4. Are you expected to do more hours unpaid to cover her workload?
girlmom21 · 12/11/2021 18:34

@XenoBitch people who pull sickies because they've got a hangover, people who call in sick with 'the flu' when they've got a sniffle, people who need to stay home because they've been notified 'last minute' that their kids have an inset day.

TMChappyascanbe · 12/11/2021 18:34

You realise it doesn’t work like that in a childcare setting?

If OP is saying that her employer is breaching ratios then they are at fault. There are loads of reasons why a childcare setting can be short staffed and they have to be able to deal with this without breaching ratios. That's their responsibility and not the OPs or her colleagues.

Whitecushion · 12/11/2021 18:35

Xenobitch no I am most certainly not and I object strongly to that comment.

RuggerHug · 12/11/2021 18:35

@rainbowdashsneeze

This has just happened to me. I have had one vaccine I was medically advised not to have the second due to the reaction I had, my eldest child became ill with covid and needed me to care for her so I would have worked from home home whether I was double vaccinated or not then my vulnerable child caught it and then I caught it we have all been very poorly. I have been working from home/on sick now for 2.5 weeks and my isolation doesn't end until Wednesday. My colleagues will have had to pick up some of my work and I would feel very hurt if my colleagues thought this behind my back.
rainbowfashsneeze That's completely different and anyone being a dick in your situation would be a ...Well dick.
Lightisnotwhite · 12/11/2021 18:35

A person who lives as part of a society, happily enjoying all the benefits of that society whilst refusing to take reasonable steps to keep that society safe has plenty to do with everyone

Sorry but the “no harm” argument is hideous.
Every year things done for our good are forced upon our society, Of course Covid vaccines are good and smoking and alcohol are bad. In probably similar amounts. But the relentless push to there being “a right way” to live is Orwellian.
You might wonder why metal health is so shit despite all our seatbelt, smoking, health and safety law and a massive increase in overall wealth.

LoveGrooveDanceParty · 12/11/2021 18:36

Picking up the slack is something to take up with management, and not the fault of the person off work.
Or are you one of the types that think people off work with things like depression are taking the piss too?

Please stop with the false equivalents.

Of course it’s the fault of the person off work, if they’re off work because they chose to be.

Depression is an illness.

Choosing not to be vaccinated and skiving at home is not.

Do you really need this explained to you?

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 12/11/2021 18:38

@Narutocrazyfox

YABU. Her body, her choice. Its the isolation rules that are the issue here - at least she's following them.
I agree it's the rules that are wrong but why should she be paid for sitting on her arse while other people pick up the pieces? Surely if she can't do her job then she shouldn't be paid.
XenoBitch · 12/11/2021 18:38

@LoveGrooveDanceParty

Picking up the slack is something to take up with management, and not the fault of the person off work. Or are you one of the types that think people off work with things like depression are taking the piss too?

Please stop with the false equivalents.

Of course it’s the fault of the person off work, if they’re off work because they chose to be.

Depression is an illness.

Choosing not to be vaccinated and skiving at home is not.

Do you really need this explained to you?

No, the law as it stands means they have to stay at home. That is not their choice.
LoveGrooveDanceParty · 12/11/2021 18:40

@Whitecushion

Don't people feel embarrassed when they sit at home doing nothing and are paid for it ? If I had decided to make the quite frankly( in my opinion) stupid choice not to be vaccinated I would at least have the self awareness to be uncomfortable about the extra work I was leaving to collegues.
I wonder this too, but it’s quite clear their minds work very differently, and this is of zero concern to them.
nettie434 · 12/11/2021 18:40

Morrisons does not pay unvaccinated staff (other than those who are exempt) if they have to isolate and so far this has not been challenged in terms of its legality. My only worry is that it could encourage unvaccinated staff to carry on working.

The problem is that we know education/childcare settings have got high rates of transmission. I would feel more resentful in the OP's position than if I worked somewhere where an isolating colleague was able to work at home, leaving my workload unaffected.

The OP mentions that this is a new colleague. I wonder if employers will begin to ask for vaccine passports on applications. Social care staff already have to be double vaccinated, as will NHS clinical staff. We have always assumed that choice has to be limited if we can affect others. There is already a precedent in terms of the hepatitis B vaccine for doctors.

Mushypeasandchipstogo · 12/11/2021 18:41

YANBU. She should not be on full pay! Totally unfair that you should have to cover for her .

WhatAHexIGotInto · 12/11/2021 18:41

I understand this very well. I work in a school and a colleague who started in September has been in school for approximately two weeks in that time. I'm the cover manager so I'm spending a fucking fortune on supply teachers to cover her classes.

LoveGrooveDanceParty · 12/11/2021 18:42

No, the law as it stands means they have to stay at home. That is not their choice.

It is their choice not to get vaccinated.

Offmyfence · 12/11/2021 18:43

@Grapewrath

Yabu She has made a decision about her own body, presumably an informed decision. Vaccines don’t come without risks and she feels the vaccine risk possess greater threat than covid in her case. Yanbu to be annoyed but she didn’t make up the isolation rules
Good job we don't all take that view!