AIBU to consider a formal work complaint about catching covid?

[sickandbothered]

So I'm currently sick in bed 1 week after catching covid, and the more I think about it the angrier I get about how easily avoidable this was.

I work in an organisation where we have compulsory hybrid working - we have to come in 2-3 days a week minimum (not because our jobs actually require it but to justify the rent/costs/for the appearance of things). I am also 6 months pregnant & have type-1 diabetes, both known/visible to my colleagues. Both factors put me in the higher risk category for covid (I had my vaccinations/booster in the same cohort as to 70+, for context).

I came in to work last week for meetings. While there I passed a very chatty colleague who I know well enough ( & vice versa), who told me she currently had covid & was very sick with it, had tested positive a few days ago, was still acutely symptomatic (she complained to me of sore throat, fatigue, insomnia, congestion etc), but it was ok for her to come in because she'd since had 1 negative test so her supervisor gave her permission. I politely tried to keep my distance, and figured it was above board and not my business. Later she came up to my desk to talk to me about something she wanted done from a team mate of mine, again, nothing to do with me & I tried to politely end the conversation repeatedly (literally saying she should email them directly, repeatedly), but she has a tendency to keep talking until she's exhausted conversation options. Again, annoying but no big deal I thought.

Otherwise I went to 1 cafe briefly that day, but did not go inside any other buildings other than my home, nor did I go out much that week other than dog walking. No one else I was in contact with has has covid. In short I know it's impossible to prove, but I'm fairly sure I got it from the woman at work.

2 days later I got my first covid symptoms, and have been bed ridden since. Its my first time getting covid. It's very stressful because as I'm pregnant & diabetic the risk of serious infection is higher, and I can't take any OTC remedies, or even honey & lemon tea. My blood sugars are through the roof & I've had to increase my insulin over 200% to try and keep my baby safe, I'm constantly fighting the diabetes. Now my husband is sick & bedridden too. We've both been off work all week. We've had to cancel a small family reunion with overseas family we were going to see this weekend, haven't seen them for 4 years, now it will be even longer. My team at work could also have done without this as we're busy & v understaffed currently.

I checked my work guidance last week before the symptoms really kicked in and it's pretty clear if you have covid symptoms you're not supposed to come in until they're gone, and that you need multiple negative tests on different days before coming back in the office. I raised this (mentioning no names) with our organisations covid team ahead of the heatwave bc I was concerned about people coming in for the air conditioning & getting sick like I had (we have several pregnant women at work), but had no response from them until after the heatwave when they said they would review the covid guidance in a couple of weeks.

So I'm thinking of complaining. It would not be about the individual necessarily (although I am personally v angry with her for choosing to come in when she was sick, she has a clerical job so to my knowledge there was no need for her to come in). Instead my complaint would be about the fact that her supervisor gave the wrong advice, and that the organisation has not taken the current covid risks seriously at all, or adequately responded. That said, given the response thus far, not sure a formal complaint would be well received, or even listened to at all...

Still shattered & sick in bed. Breathing is difficult but not so much that it's worth a hospital trip. It's really painful to cough. Hard to sleep because of the pregnancy. Exhausted. And is being pissed off a covid symptom?

I did expect to catch covid eventually but honestly, I do think this particular case could have been avoided. I am trying to focus on the bright side - at least I didn't get it in the last month of pregnancy when it's the most dangerous to the baby. And hopefully this will help my husband and my immunity ahead of birth/the first year.

So: AIBU to be considering complaining about catching covid at work?

Mask wearing is only effective in helping someone avoid catching covid if the person with covid is masked too). If they are masked, it can help lower transmission. But if I have covid and am strolling around mask-free, and you're wearing a mask, you're only have a tiny, tiny amount of protection. Masking is much more effective for stopping people with covid from spreading it, than it is for stopping people without covid from catching it.

I think the difficulty you will have is proving correlation as there’s too many contingencies

I am healthy/early 20s/fully vaccinated. I stayed off work on a Monday 6 weeks ago as I was sneezing and my eyes were watering. Covid positive. I didn’t pass it on - not even to my partner who I live with, or colleagues that I went to dinner/bar crawl with on the Thursday and Friday before. No one else was unwell in the following weeks.

When I returned to work, I had to show proof of my negative test. Perhaps your colleague was asked this. Testing negative means you’re unlikely to pass it on to someone else. A 2 day incubation period alongside that, is suggestive that you may have caught it elsewhere vs from her. You could have even caught it from someone who is asymptomatic. At this stage, regular covid testing isn’t mandatory so there’s people who have covid but aren’t aware as they don’t need to test.

Therefore placing a formal complaint at work and referencing this colleague in particular will make your complaint difficult for them to action. Legally people can go to work whilst unwell whilst covid, and people like you aren’t expected to shield. Therefore it may have made you feel uncomfortable that this colleague spoke to you, or was at work at all, but the company hasn’t made an error.

your only angle is to keep yourself safer at work, but your manager has already asked you to work from home for the foreseeable. Therefore you have nothing to gain

However, the second someone says ‘i have Covid-19’ and you remain in conversation with them you only have yourself to blame. That you didn’t say ‘im pregnant would you please back off’ is mind boggling.

I agree with this. If you felt that uncomfortable and really thought you would catch covid, you should have spoken up. “I don’t want to risk being unwell, could you please email me instead?” is sufficient if you have an unwell colleague pestering you. You could have walked away eg gone to the bathroom or canteen. You could have gone straight to your/her supervisor. You didn’t have to stay and “get infected”

I'd be more pissed off with her as an individual. I'm pretty relaxed concerning anything covid related but I can't imagine going up to a pregnant woman and talking incessantly at her whilst knowingly being quite poorly (with anything!). Just really silly behaviour on her part.

Statistically its terrifically unlikely that someone who tested negative for it passed it to you. Its much more likely you got it from someone else who doesnt know they have it. Its everywhere at the moment.

Your complaints at work would not go down well. We cannot as a society or an economy have people who are able to work not working. We are skint or haven't you noticed?

It happened to my husband too and he was really ill. You can bet your life you were not the only one infected by her. Find out who else has covid. Put in a joint complaint.

It’s impossible to prove and therefore pointless to complain I think. At least now you have Covid you should have strong immunity for the rest of your pregnancy! It’s annoying when your employer doesn’t respect your health worries. I felt the same when I had to go into work all throughout Covid even pre the vaccination programme ( asthmatic and work in a school). You feel like your employer should do more to protect you if you’re vulnerable but they rarely do.

I think you should ask for a reasonable adjustment given the level of Covid infections and your pregnancy to be allowed to work from home until your maternity leave. Any company could justify that if others being forced into the office two days a week felt this was unfair.

How can OP know who infected her? She could have encountered any number of people with covid over the past week or so, as could get DH.

If her colleague had tested negative it's highly unlikely she was infectious. Symptoms can persist for weeks after you you test negative (I've had covid six times so I can absolutely attest to this!). People can't stay in for weeks and weeks.

How can OP know who infected her?

She can't know that. And it sounds like the person in question didn't break any government guidance either, so even if she'd not come into work, OP could have encountered her in a shop/cafe/whatever. So I'd say there isn't much to get behind here in a complaint, so I'd concentrate on her current situation.

Guidance is 5 days so perhaps she had had it longer anyway. Unless you get full pay with nothing negative against you as far as your work record you can't blame people anyway. You could have caught it anywhere anyway, incubation is up to 14 days

The workplace's rules were broken, so yes, there is reason for a complaint. OP doesn't have to prove the person gave her Covid.

The workplace's rules were broken, so yes, there is reason for a complaint.

The rules seem very stringent (comparatively to other workplaces) and this person was given a specific exemption. I'd say a reasonably likely outcome of a complaint would be for the company to relax their rules in line with official guidance, rather than going the other way.

"The rules seem very stringent (comparatively to other workplaces)"

That you shouldn't come in if you have Covid. Are you sure other workplaces where people can wfh don't have this rule? Got a survey?

"this person was given a specific exemption"

By one supervisor though. HR or senior management may not agree.

You could ask for a risk assessment to be carried out and from there ask for a reasonable adjustment to more home working due to the risk of covid, noting particular circumstances in your case such as diabetes that increase the risk of harm (you can also mention that being covid positive could interfere with midwife appointments etc)

www.hse.gov.uk/mothers/employer/risk-assessment.htm

Instead of complaining would a review of your pregnancy risk assessment be a better approach? Get them to acknowledge your own personal increased risks and allow WFH for you?

I know it's hard for you but from an employers point of view the last 2 years have been very stressful at making up rules as Covid developed. I Write our company's risk assessments and COVID was a nightmare as no one knew anything and there was no template to follow so it was very much making it up as you go and getting all to abide by it when some people wouldn't even accept COVID was real or an issue even after having it themselves.

That you shouldn't come in if you have Covid.

She had a negative test and was outside of the isolation period. I'm not quite sure what more should be asked here. As symptoms could linger for weeks, that isn't practical.

By one supervisor though. HR or senior management may not agree.

I'd be surprised if this decision was outside of the supervisor's remit, but if it was, again I think a likely outcome would be to make rules more simple, not more complicated. They won't want to get themselves in a position where any relaxation of stringent covid rules would need to be signed off by senior management.

"Instead of complaining would a review of your pregnancy risk assessment be a better approach? Get them to acknowledge your own personal increased risks and allow WFH for you?"

That will help OP but nobody else. The people with Covid shouldn't be coming in while positive and infecting other people. If OP goes down this route she will be letting down other colleagues.

"She had a negative test and was outside of the isolation period. I'm not quite sure what more should be asked here."

The more would be following the workplace's own rules I suppose. According to OP "it's pretty clear if you have covid symptoms you're not supposed to come in until they're gone, and that you need multiple negative tests on different days before coming back in the office."

The more would be following the workplace's own rules I suppose.

And the point I was making is that these rules are more stringent than most workplaces will have in place and far in advance of the official guidance.

The symptoms point doesn't make any sense anyway as symptoms could linger for weeks.

OP I’ve actually been in this situation! I started a new job in January for a very small business in a tiny office and quickly realised that they were all Covid deniers. 2 of my colleagues tested positive a few weeks later and were told to come in if they felt well enough.

Im immunosuppressed - they know this.

And I was coughed on by colleague 1. Colleague 2 wiped his snotty nose with his hand and then grabbed my computer mouse. At that moment, I simply walked out and resigned.

There was no hygiene in place and when I asked the boss he said “I can’t tell XX how to live his life”

I tested positive a few days after and was so ill I needed treatment via IV.

Of course you can raise a complaint against a company for not following it's own policies. Make sure you document them and make notes of exactly what happened asap in case you need to refer to them.

I was thinking the same as you, a review of the guidance would probably make them decide it is time to relax the rules. Go back to the old days, when people used their own judgement over whether to go in to work or not. This would be more in line with how most organisations are going and indeed government guidance.

As the test was negative, I do not think this colleague passed anything on to the OP. In any case, this is life, people have been catching things from colleagues since time began, it is a consequence of sharing the planet with other human beings. I think OP is stuck in a 2020 time warp and no good will come of this “complaint”. It is also particularly patronising to suggest she doesn’t need to go to work because she is only a clerk too.

OP, I think you dealt with this well.
(Apart from not saying anything to her and the time and letting her stand close to you and talk to you....what were you thinking 🤦🏻‍♀️)
It was obviously selfish and idiotic of her to come in. It would be annoying if it was flu!

I think I saw it was 1 in 17 have Covid in the UK at the minute.

Covid is still causing chaos in hospitals and people who don't care if it's spread about are idiots. It still results in bed blocking and causes logistical problems.

However, lots and lots of people literally don't care and won't test even if they are fairly sure they have it.

I don't understand how it's good business sense to increase the risk to people coming in to work/travelling to work by infecting others. It's a bit 'can't possibly let you wfh or not come in for a couple more days - much better that you make several others ill instead'.