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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

SnapdragonToadflax · 26/10/2023 18:03

WFH if you have a bad cold or cough, absolutely please do not come in with Covid or any other nasty infectious disease. We all WFH most of the time so it's absolutely normal to stay at home if you don't feel great.

Not strictly enforced but our sickness policy is very relaxed and no-one would have any reason to come in while ill.

Immoralplant · 26/10/2023 18:23

Stay home if you feel ill. Go back to work if you feel better. No need to test.

I am NHS frontline, that is now the official advice for all workers in health and social care, except those providing hospital care to severely immunocompromised patients.

Original poster

covidisback · 26/10/2023 22:46

I should have been a bit clearer thanks for your replies.

I'm talking more about a scenario where someone tests g positive but is feeling ok to work?

Presumably most places advice to work from home?

OP posts:

Toddlerteaplease · 26/10/2023 22:47

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.

Edited

We tried very hard to send my colleague who was obviously unwell home the other day. She spent the whole day in a bad mood, complaining how ill she was but refused to go home as she would trigger stage two in the sickness policy. Think I've now got her lurgy.

WeightoftheWorld · 27/10/2023 12:51

covidisback · 26/10/2023 22:46

I should have been a bit clearer thanks for your replies.

I'm talking more about a scenario where someone tests g positive but is feeling ok to work?

Presumably most places advice to work from home?

I work in a GP practice and they tell us we have to work in the office even if we are COVID positive and even though our job can be done from home.

Original poster

covidisback · 27/10/2023 18:34

@WeightoftheWorld wow, what's their rationale behind this are they saying it's just like a cold now?

OP posts:

CaptainJackSparrow85 · 27/10/2023 19:27

My office’s policy is that there’s no obligation to test, but if you do happen to test positive for Covid then you’re asked to stay away from the office for 5 days - WFH if you feel well enough to work or sick leave if you don’t.

WeightoftheWorld · 27/10/2023 19:45

covidisback · 27/10/2023 18:34

@WeightoftheWorld wow, what's their rationale behind this are they saying it's just like a cold now?

The NHS guidance for staff says staff no longer have to isolate/stay away from work even if they are covid positive. That includes patient-facing staff although it does suggest putting in some mitigations in those cases such as mask wearing or avoiding contact with very vulnerable patients. So our GP practice is not breaking any of that central guidance. They are also now just on a general push to get as many people working on site as possible now. They tell us it's not good for us to feel 'isolated' working at home, it's good for wellbeing to be on site etc even though nobody in our team certainly has expressed any desire to work in the office nor any feelings of isolation from working at home and so on. There is also one part of our job to be fair that does need people to be on site to do, but only say 3/10 people will be doing that on any one day, so the remaining people have a job that could be done from home, and was being done so since the start of the pandemic, but they've just decided to suddenly almost completely remove home working. As you can imagine the stance is causing a lot of conflict, particularly when it comes to the issue of illness in an office environment when some staff members are immunosuppressed.

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