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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

For telling my neighbour he should stay home

448 replies

queensonia · 23/03/2022 18:16

My next door neighbours both tested positive for COVID on the weekend. Today I saw the husband getting in his car to go to work. He works for a medium sized public company with a lot of staff. He said he was told that he’s not legally obliged to isolate and that if he felt well enough he should still go into work. I told him he was morally obliged to isolate because he could infect colleagues who may suffer far worse than he is currently and pass it on to their relatives who may also get very ill or die. Is this what everyone is doing now.? In my industry we are pcr tested twice a week and not allowed on site until the test is negative.

OP posts:
mrsdolittle · 23/03/2022 19:31

My employer expects us to work if we are covid positive but not unwell. If we are not well enough to work we take time off sick (just like the pre covid days). Any sickness absence comes off our sickness allowance. Once that is used up we go on SSP.

As it happens I have a relatively generous sickness package (length of service) but obviously not everyone is this lucky. Possibly your neighbour is unwilling to take sick pay if he is well enough to work. Or possibly his employer is putting pressure on to go in.

Whatever - it is the "new normal", for better or for worse, regardless of the morality of it.

It is absolutely none of your business what your neighbour does. I'm glad you don't live next door to me

Whitefire · 23/03/2022 19:36

I had hoped that the covid pandemic would see a shift in attitudes towards sickness practices within companies. Alas it has not, and I count my employer in this, still expected to be in if ill. At the moment we are told to stay at home with covid, but that may well change next week.

Chloemol · 23/03/2022 19:37

This is precisely why cases are rocketing again, and hospital admittance going up

hangrylady · 23/03/2022 19:39

"I wonder when thinking of others before yourself being a "moral" to be sneered at"

So you expect people to put others before their own families who are dependent on them? Not going to happen.

honeyytoast · 23/03/2022 19:41

When did the MN/public opinion on this shift so much?

Original poster
queensonia · 23/03/2022 19:44

He could have got paid sick leave.. He is a senior manager with full employment benefits so it is not a case of losing money if he stayed home.

OP posts:
GrapesAreMyJam · 23/03/2022 19:44

This reply has been deleted

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

balalake · 23/03/2022 19:45

Contact the company concerned. If they are the size you suggest, and are expecting their staff to spread Covid, then they should be named and shamed. I am sure that is not the case.

Hopefully they will act.

Thewindwhispers · 23/03/2022 19:46

Yanbu

Schoolchoicesucks · 23/03/2022 19:46

I agree that he should be staying at home if he's still contagious. However, he's no longer legally obliged to. He may well be testing negative on a LF test by now, which could suggest he's not contagious. He may not get paid sick leave if he doesn't go into work.
From 1 April, he may not have known he had covid as the testing stops.

Whitefire · 23/03/2022 19:47

@Chloemol

This is precisely why cases are rocketing again, and hospital admittance going up
If you want to start blaming anyone, start with the government. If your workplace expects you in, then in you go. A moral argument won't go very far with many wage payers.

It is irrelevant how I feel about the government policy, this is what it is and no one, employer or employee is doing anything wrong within this.

Original poster
queensonia · 23/03/2022 19:50

[quote Crunchymum]@queensonia

2 PCR tests a week?[/quote]
Yes. It is an insurance requirement in the industry in which I work.
I wouldn’t get sick pay if I had to stay home as I am a freelancer but my neighbour is entitled to sick pay.

OP posts:
girlmom21 · 23/03/2022 19:50

the most read article in our local paper today was the hospital telling if significant pressures and to only go to A&E if life or death situation.

Well yeah that's because people can't quite comprehend the concepts of accidents and emergencies so we have to exaggerate for the morons.

A&E isn't going to be stretched to its limits because of covid patients, is it Hmm

MasterBeth · 23/03/2022 19:51

@LotusCheesecake

This makes me so cross - it's the attitude of someone who has always received full sick pay and has never had to worry about money. Government guidance is that if you feel ok you should carry on as normal. Yes lots of businesses will ask people not to come in (or to WFH), but guess what, not all businesses care!
Government guidance is absolutely not that.

It is (in England) that you should:

Stay at home and away from others
You should stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you:

  • have any of the main symptoms of COVID-19
  • have tested positive for COVID-19 – this means you have the virus

www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/

girlmom21 · 23/03/2022 19:52

@queensonia

He could have got paid sick leave.. He is a senior manager with full employment benefits so it is not a case of losing money if he stayed home.
How do you know that?

Most companies won't pay sick leave if you're not, you know, sick...

XenoBitch · 23/03/2022 19:52

@queensonia

He could have got paid sick leave.. He is a senior manager with full employment benefits so it is not a case of losing money if he stayed home.
If he is well enough to work, he is not sick is he?
DearMallorie · 23/03/2022 19:53

We've been told to come in with covid if we are well enough to work. Just like we are with any illness. I work in a primary school.

We can't get supply staff. There aren't any. So it's come in or close that class. And the SLT have decided that sending 25 children home when the teacher feels perfectly capable of teaching is daft. If they don't feel well enough then they stay at home and they are ill. No online learning or anything and the teacher isn't well enough to provide that.

MasterBeth · 23/03/2022 19:53

@Beautiful3

He's following government guidelines. He's allowed to go to work as normal, with covid. You're not going to pay his loss of earnings, so I do think you're being unreasonable.
He is not following government guidelines. Government guidelines say:

do not go to work, school or public places – if you’re unable to work from home, ask your employer about options available to you

do not have visitors in your home, including friends and family – except for people providing essential care or services

DoWhatYouLike · 23/03/2022 19:54

I think you should mind your own bloody business

AmusableDragon · 23/03/2022 19:55

twitter.com/independent/status/1506580318379257857?s=21

It's not gone away. Hospitals in this area are cancelling surgery and asking people not to go to A&E.

FlissyPaps · 23/03/2022 19:56

YABU.

Covid isn’t going anywhere. No matter how many lockdowns/quarantines/isolations.

MasterBeth · 23/03/2022 19:56

@Gilly12345

You really should mind your own business, not all companies are paying sick pay so people are returning to work.

There is no law stipulating that you have to stay at home so it is between the person and their employer.

The MP Savid Javid was on BBC Breakfast on Monday morning and said he would go to work if he tested positive and had no symptoms.

Butt out.

Absolutely untrue:

He said if he himself tested positive for Covid-19 he would not go to work, and urged a “common sense” approach. “If you’re not feeling well, if you’ve got the symptoms of Covid, then it’s not a good idea to mix with other people - the right idea is to try to spend some time trying to stay away from others,” he said.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/sajid-javid-says-people-covid-23450449

Original poster
queensonia · 23/03/2022 19:56

Why is everybody saying that I can work from home? That is impossible in the particular job I do and as a freelancer I have no sick pay or holiday pay entitlement but that is not the point here at all.

OP posts:
olympicsrock · 23/03/2022 19:56

Whoever up thread said that the NHS are not overwhelmed is wrong.
We are … but the issue is staff sickness due to people isolating or looking after well school age children who are self isolating . It is really labour intensive to have to manage both covid and non covid pathways.

The covid positive patients in hospital are often incidental findings who have come in with other things now.

Unforgettablefire · 23/03/2022 19:56

I think something should be put in place if vulnerable people could be affected from those going into work with covid.
The only time I’d say anything is if I actually worked with the man, I’m ill with covid now and I’d lose my shit if I had to work with someone in future who had it.