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Original poster

To ask what your company stance is on covid for office based workers?

83 replies

covidisback · 26/10/2023 11:13

Just that really - as it's on the rise I'm interested to know companies are doing?

NC don't want it linked to other posts - I'm not a journalist!!

OP posts:
WideLegPant · 26/10/2023 13:53

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 26/10/2023 12:30

I'm a bit horrified to see that some offices are more cautious than care homes!

In care homes we are told not to test, if we feel well enough to work we should come into work, if coughing/sneezing we should wear a mask.

That's awful! I can understand pretending that everyone will be ok in the average population, but not for elderly and poorly people.

I'd actually be asking about this when looking at homes - are they likely to be honest about their policy?

WideLegPant · 26/10/2023 13:56

Ponderingwindow · 26/10/2023 13:17

No one is allowed in the office with any signs of contagious illness, regardless of disease. People are expected to wfh and not knowingly spread anything from the common cold to Covid

Exactly. I had to take 2 days off with a normal cold - wasn't that awful but ue was achey/ hot/ shivery enough to not be able to sit in front of a screen. If I'd spread that to 10 people that'd be average 20 person days lost to the office. Makes no sense to come in if you have the option not too.

theunbelievabletruth · 26/10/2023 14:03

The thing that shocks me about this is the blasé assumption that having a mild case of Covid is 'fine' and therefore not only are some people expected in work but actually WANT to be in work. There seems to be no basic common sense about the catastrophic effect that this disease causes way and above any other endemic illness at the moment.

It's not just a cold.

My completely fit and healthy mother and my dad who had diet controlled (mild non medicated) diabetes were both dead within 5 days of each other this year because they caught it from someone who either thought it was too mild to worry about or that they needed to be 'heroic' and carry on as normal.

If you have an infectious disease your first thought should be who might I pass this to.

maddening · 26/10/2023 14:10

WideLegPant · 26/10/2023 11:36

Because then you might have to inconvenience yourself based on the knowledge. People think that deliberately not testing then pleading ignorance is in some way morally preferable Hmm

anyway no doubt this thread will descend into people swearing that covid is just a cold, no-one is really affected by it, and those with long covid are... basically lying or in some way deserve it for not inconveniencing themselves pre-emptively so as not to get it.

Show quote history

But we already had chronic fatigue syndrome that is caused by viruses such as colds - no one was out telling people with colds not to go to work if they felt relatively well before covid, we already had flu and again people just have to get on with it - like all in nature there is risk of disease wherever you go and where possible you do take reasonable measures to avoid (vaccines, cleaning, etiquette such as using and binning tissues and washing hands etc) but there is a point beyond which you can't reasonably demand that people change or alter their lives at unreasonable expense - financially or otherwise.

Coralsunset · 26/10/2023 14:13

We are absolutely not allowed in the office or to visit external clients if we have, or might have covid. We are expected to work from home if we’ll enough, or be off sick if not.

MasterBeth · 26/10/2023 14:13

Test if suspicious. Stay home if Covid positive. If you’re well enough, WFH. If not, claim sickness.

If you test Covid negative, but are coughing, sneezing and spluttering your way through the day, also stay home because no-one wants your nasty cold/flu germs either.

maddening · 26/10/2023 14:14

theunbelievabletruth · 26/10/2023 14:03

The thing that shocks me about this is the blasé assumption that having a mild case of Covid is 'fine' and therefore not only are some people expected in work but actually WANT to be in work. There seems to be no basic common sense about the catastrophic effect that this disease causes way and above any other endemic illness at the moment.

It's not just a cold.

My completely fit and healthy mother and my dad who had diet controlled (mild non medicated) diabetes were both dead within 5 days of each other this year because they caught it from someone who either thought it was too mild to worry about or that they needed to be 'heroic' and carry on as normal.

If you have an infectious disease your first thought should be who might I pass this to.

I would say it is more akin to a flu, for which we have vaccines and a vaccine regime to protect the more vulnerable- thousands do die with flu annually unfortunately- for some flu is mild, they would not know they had it - for others it is fatal. We protect with vaccines - if you are v vulnerable in flu season it may be something you need to take in to account - eg avoid unnecessary events where you are in large crowds indoors for example.

MasterBeth · 26/10/2023 14:15

Covid is much more infectious than flu.

maddening · 26/10/2023 14:16

However to answer the op - I can work from home and would do whether it was a cold or covid.

I am also vulnerable and have just had my covid jab. My flu jab is next week.

HashBrownandBeans · 26/10/2023 14:18

Company stance is to work as normal unless you are too sick. I worked for two days with ‘cold symptoms’, then was too sick to work for three days. Tested positive in that period. Then went back to work still vaguely unwell. Got loads of shit from everybody in the office for being in, made me feel really guilty, but it’s the company rules!

loulouljh · 26/10/2023 14:18

No stance. Common sense. If you feel ill stay at home. Like we used to do before the world went mad.

maddening · 26/10/2023 14:23

MasterBeth · 26/10/2023 14:15

Covid is much more infectious than flu.

I reckon that it will be a while before you get clean data on both infection rates and fatality rates to make a true comparison - flu has an established vaccine programme and is well understood which will impact infection rates and flu is rarely tested for - the covid vaccine programme is only a couple of years old and there is more testing done.

nottodaytomorrow · 26/10/2023 14:31

Treated same as a cold so expected to carry on as normal and if you feel to unwell to work absence is treated as any other and goes against your record. Our work place only took covid seriously when the law told it to!

coxesorangepippin · 26/10/2023 14:38

Zero tolerance - any sniff of a cold, COVID, fever etc, you stay home

One woman has been off for over two weeks

And I don't blame her

Sharpness19 · 26/10/2023 14:39

NHS admin. Not allowed to WFH.

Come in if you’re well enough. Go sick if you aren’t, oh and it will count towards your regular sick leave now on the sickness policy. Last time I had it (April) it didn’t.

Toddlerteaplease · 26/10/2023 15:00

SocksAndTheCity · 26/10/2023 11:26

Feel OK to work = work
Too ill to work = can't work

To be fair, that's been the MO for as long as I can remember and nothing to do with covid.

I'm a nurse and it's the same

SerenChocolateMuncher · 26/10/2023 15:21

MasterBeth · 26/10/2023 14:15

Covid is much more infectious than flu.

That is true, but flu (I mean real flu, not the pathetic little sniffles that many people call flu) is a far more serious illness than covid.

Flu is potentially fatal for all age groups, but especially the elderly and very young children. Post viral fatigue, after recovery from the acute illness, is common after an episode of flu.

Covid is a greater concern than flu, because we have had much longer to manage flu with vaccination and natural immunity than we have had with covid. Flu also has a narrow and predicable season from early December to the end of February in the UK. Any illness outside these months is unlikely to be real flu. Covid is likely to strike any time.

Anyone who is suffering from real flu would be unlikely to leave home, even if they wanted to, because it is debilitating for at least a week and often more than two weeks. This, combined with the fact that it is not as transmissible as covid, means (thankfully) you are not very likely to catch it unless we have a serious epidemic.

Covid isn't flu. It is more like the kind of colds caused by the other corona viruses we are more used to.

Covid is a concern to society due to its transmissible and unpredictable nature and the fact that it is still potentially fatal. Flu affects far fewer people (unless we have an epidemic which could potentially happen any time), but is a more serious illness.

I never like being ill, but given the choice (I have had flu once about 30 years ago and covid twice), I would rather have covid than flu.

Dotjones · 26/10/2023 15:41

If you've got cold or flu symptoms, work from home if you're able or go sick if not. Even before Covid I hated people who came in with "just" a cold. It might "just be a cold" to you but the same infection might affect someone else much worse. And even if it doesn't, nobody wants your fucking cold because you feel so self-important that you can't possibly work from home.

KingsleyBorder · 26/10/2023 15:43

loulouljh · 26/10/2023 14:18

No stance. Common sense. If you feel ill stay at home. Like we used to do before the world went mad.

Not sure I follow- before Covid most people were not set up to WFH so staying at home meant not working and people were more likely to feel under pressure to work when feeling unwell. Now people can stay at home with mild but infectious symptoms yet not lose a day’s work. So I think we should now be more willing to stay at home than we were pre-Covid. It’s a really positive thing.

frazzledasarock · 26/10/2023 15:46

As testing isn’t compulsory anymore, the company I work for has said anyone who feels unwell has to stay home, nobody wants to catch anyone’s lurgies.

those feeling well enough should WFH those not should sign off sick.

it’s sensible I think.

WeightoftheWorld · 26/10/2023 15:47

GP practice - if you're too ill to work you stay off sick and if you're not you have to go into the office. Our line manager has asked us to wear masks if we are working in the office and have any sort of cold or virus.

Sparklesocks · 26/10/2023 15:51

My work thankfully have no tolerance for martyrs and don’t want anyone coming in who is clearly too poorly to work - covid or otherwise. My boss even sent home one guy who dragged himself in nose streaming and coughing and hacking all over the place - don’t get everyone else sick too!

Interestingly my company’s sickness absences have improved since we started hybrid working. I think there’s something in it, you might not feel well enough to get up early, walk down to the train station in the rain, get on a busy train/tube and travel all the way into work - but maybe you can get out of bed a bit later (not needing to commute) meaning you get a bit of extra sleep, whack your laptop on and bang out some emails/teams calls between cups of lemsip and a lie down on the sofa and after a few hours you’re feeling a bit better - rather than taking the whole day off based on how you feel at 6am.

WideLegPant · 26/10/2023 17:55

theunbelievabletruth · 26/10/2023 14:03

The thing that shocks me about this is the blasé assumption that having a mild case of Covid is 'fine' and therefore not only are some people expected in work but actually WANT to be in work. There seems to be no basic common sense about the catastrophic effect that this disease causes way and above any other endemic illness at the moment.

It's not just a cold.

My completely fit and healthy mother and my dad who had diet controlled (mild non medicated) diabetes were both dead within 5 days of each other this year because they caught it from someone who either thought it was too mild to worry about or that they needed to be 'heroic' and carry on as normal.

If you have an infectious disease your first thought should be who might I pass this to.

I'm really sorry. That must have been a terrible experience.

I know someone whose family was devastated by a covid death, albeit before vaccines. Fit and healthy too. I think the pandemic has made at least a few people consider how they can reduce the risk of spreading illnesses- I used to go in to work when I wasn't well, didn't bother with flu jab, but all that has changed. Wearing a decent filter mask is a bit more normalised now.

I've seen how it can affect people living with cancer too. More people than I had guessed.

ExTheCheater · 26/10/2023 17:57

If we test positive we work from home. Not that I'm testing. My sibling works for a big coffee chain and felt ill, tested positive and was told they are still expected in and they had no time off.

boredfuckinsenseless · 26/10/2023 18:01

Not office but retail. Covid is treated the same as any other illness. Though if you test and its positive you have to stay off 5 days minimum or until 2 negative tests or 10 days.
All sickness is subject to disciplinary if more than 3 instances in a year.