I have a nut allergy and colleague eating nuts in office.

[Yewdontknowme]

I’ve been working with this company since June. It’s with a small company with two open plan rooms in the same building. There is no HR department just the owners and the general manager and supervisors. One room is nut free as myself and an intern are severely allergic, the other room is ok for nuts. We never have to go into the other office. We are allocated space based on what we do within the company and wfh isn’t an option. For the past few months everything has been great.

A supervisor has returned to our office this past fortnight after maternity leave. It seems she is really popular among the other women in the office. She has ignored all the signs and warnings and has been eating nuts at her workstation, which is making me wheeze and my throat and mouth are itching until I get away home. I’m working dosed up on piriton and with fingers crossed I don’t need to use my epipen.

Our manager is a bit of a coward so has been trying to deal with this woman calmly including offering her a space in the other room but she’s refusing to swap rooms as she wants to be with her friends and likes the bigger workspace she has. She is claiming it’s discriminating against her as a returning mother and a vegetarian and so she will continue to eat what she wants, as in her words “they’re not eating the nuts themselves so they’ll be ok”. For what it’s worth I too am a vegetarian. She also told us to get epipens. Myself and the intern can’t go into the other room as the work in there is totally different to what we do. We need the facilities in this space. Our manager has told us we need to sort it out among ourselves.

I appreciate this is a management problem but what am I supposed to do in the meantime? I’m still on probation and this woman is a long standing staff member. It took me a long time to find this job after redundancy in lockdown and I’m terrified I’ll be laid off after my probationary period runs out because of the drama this causes. I can start looking for another job but I fear it will take me over a year again.

AIBU to expect the manager to deal with this woman instead of having to sort out a ‘compromise’ myself?

Ok, first of all is this a 'proper allergy?' ... assuming it is then you need to get the management more involved. Yes eat nuts but not in work... easy enough!
Failing that can they give you a job where you can WFH, albeit it may mean a different role, but twlll them it's a real allergy and you need support or alternative working environment for yourself

You have a selfish & obnoxious colleague and a spineless manager.

Have you personally told this colleague how being around nuts affects you?

I would argue that a nut allergy falls within the protected disability characteristic in the Equality Act 2010.

It's laughable that she thinks her 'right' to eat nuts supersedes your health. What a dreamer.

She has ignored all the signs and warnings
Have you told her to her face to stop amd that it could kill you? Yes its fucking disgraceful your manager wont do anything but you must!

Why wouid you risk your life for someone reading a sign or not. Make it as clear as you can to her that you need her to stop.

Your manager should be sorting this out. This isn't a lifestyle choice it is a serious health issue. Can you and your other colleague with the nut allergy discuss this together with your manager and, if that doesn't help, talk to their supervisor, I guess that's the owners (letting the manager know that is what you will do)? Make a record of all your communication about this. It might be a good idea to talk to Citizens Advice to find out exactly where you stand. You are making a perfectly reasonable demand and the signs and warnings are there for a reason. Nut eating supervisor sounds a bit of a cow.

Your manager wants to avoid conflict so you’ll get so help from him. This means that you and your nut-allergy colleague will need to sort things yourselves.

Would the two of you feel able to speak to the other person, explaining that you’re affected by nuts being in the same room. There seems to be a misunderstanding about this, so getting over the facts is important. Keep things assertive rather than aggressive and stress you want to keep any disruption to her at a minimum.

You’ll either get a positive response or not - and if not, then you must decide if you’ll take more steps, which might involve contacting a more senior manager and/or an organisation like ACAS. You’ll have to find out what rights you have in the workplace and how to apply them.

An employer has a common law duty of care to its employees. Where the risk of injury is foreseeable the employer may be at risk of a personal injury claim if it does not take steps to prevent such injury.- you might want to point this out OP?

Walk out and tell them your throat is closing. Refuse to come back until they sort the issue. Sue them if the constructively dismiss you.

Or if you’re too scared to do that call 111 and say your throat is closing whilst sat at your desk. Basically make it into the medical emergency it actually is and stop downplaying the fact your slow motion potentially dieing.

This is appalling OP.

Call ACAS for advice, that's where I'd start. You absolutely need to know what employment law says about this. Their helpline is for exactly this kind of thing.
Contact us | Acas

Your colleague is an obnoxious ,selfish so and so as is your manager.It’s the manager’s responsibility to sort this out with the peanut eating moron. She can at the very least eat her nuts in the staff room when you are not there. You are entitled to work in a safe environment especially as you have a documented allergy .

I can't believe that your colleague could be so obnoxious nor that you can be so spineless

Your workplace have to do a risk assessment which will mean this awful colleague will not be able to eat nuts near either of you

Because you may die because of it

Show photos after bad reactions and videos

So the intellectually challenged colleagues of your truly understand the consequences of a nut allergy

Swollen face, swollen airways causing death. Actual death

I bet the other colleagues aren’t as universally supportive of the nut eating supervisor as they seem. It sounds as if she and the managers don’t really understand how serious this can be, but I bet that there will be others in the office with nut allergic friends or family who do get it, given they were all complying previously. Such casual disregard for someone else’s safety is not a quality that would make someone well liked by others, and probably reflects a lack of empathy and care that may mean she’s not as popular as she appears. Is she a bully otherwise?

Her reaction is disgusting. It’s management’s responsibility to keep you safe at work. you should refuse to return until they can guarantee they are taking action to maintain a safe environment for you. Call ACAS asap for advice. Someone needs to explain to the uneducated colleague how severe allergies can be even from airborne exposure to ensure compliance.

So her right to eat nuts supersedes your right to live! Okay 🙄

Go to the GP or specialist and get a letter stating you have a nut allergy and it’s not just eating nuts, but being around nuts, and also get the letter to actually specify what an anaphylactic reaction looks like.

Educate every. Single. Person. Including the owners, and managers, on how to use the epipen, as allergies worsen on exposure, so eventually you will need the epipen and you might not be in a fit state to administer it yourself.

Get an allergy bracelet or necklace if you don’t already have one. Have a health management plan that is shared with the owners and managers in case of worst case scenario.

It might be worth joining a union, or getting an employment lawyer to contact your employers and spell out what kind of legal difficulties they can expect this lovely woman to visit on them with her refusal and blatant disregard for work health and safety rules.

Lastly, if you implement all this, do your work, are reliable, competent and consistent, the owners will have a hard time proving to a tribunal that your employment ended for reasons other than your nut allergy. But you should keep a record every day, of symptoms, duration, time of day, etc. Also, try to remember that it’s a workplace. Popularity gets no one anywhere if they kill their work colleague because they refuse to stop eating something that the colleague is severely allergic to! But document, document, document. Every time the supervisor asks her to desist and she refuses, what her refusal is and how the supervisor then deals with this refusal. It may be that you have to be firm and take the legal route.

Being a vegetarian/vegan/fruitarian/keto or any other meal plan of choice, is not a protected class and there’s no law, in any country that I know of, where there is legislation protecting someone’s right to eat nuts! In short, this woman is nuts!

If l was working with someone with a nut allergy l would be terrified l would do something to set off a reaction. What an absolutely selfish women who is also ignorant of the possible affects of her actions. Have you given the manager a doctors letter stating clearly your allergy.lts so difficult when you are on probation.

Email this to your manager
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/this-morning-tv-producer-nut-allergy-brain-damage-amy-may-shead-a7905751.html

The colleague is an absolute idiot if she thinks her rights to eat nuts are more important than your health.
Good luck

There shouldn't be any nuts allowed in the building at all whether or not you're working in a different room. I was going to mention the lady on this morning but someone already has.

I bet she wouldn’t be keen on being charged with attempted murder if either of you died. It’s not like she hasn’t been told. Selfish arsehole.

Your employer is refusing to safeguard you. I would contact ACAS for assistance. An employment lawyer would be quicker and could resolve this for a small fee.

Right!

OP you’ve literally said, which is making me wheeze and my throat and mouth are itching until I get away home. I’m working dosed up on piriton and with fingers crossed I don’t need to use my epipen.

Your manager is clearly a wuss and isn’t going to do what’s needed. The supervisor is a dick but I don’t understand why you haven’t done/said anything? ‘Excuse me, I have a nut allergy and I’m starting to wheeze and get an itchy throat because you’re eating this in the office.’

I wouldn’t even say, ‘can you step outside pls’ or anything like that. Give her the facts and sees what happen. If you fail your probation due to the drama I’m sure you’ll be able to get legal advice because the company hasn’t even tried to avoid you literally dying

It sounds like this is could be a legal issue i.e. your health and safety at your work place are comprimised by the actions of a colleague. If instruction and discussions so far haven't appealed to this persons hummanity, passionate conversations or "worst case scenarios" are not going to change their behaviour and will take its toll on you.

Approach a solicitor and get advice. In the meantime make a detailed diary of dates and times of the actions and conversations with your collegue and manager, take photographs of the signs around the office for evidence they are not following advice and document your symptoms and actions to reduce them.

Ultimately even though you sound like you are in the right, you will lose trust in your manager and there will be blowback on you either directly or through passive aggressive behaviour. Time to start looking for other workplaces and roles that will be in your best interest longterm.

Edit: Just seen you are on probation after a long redundancy so I can see why you would feel worried about it. Only a solicitor can respond as to how that can effect your position, and I still strongly recommened to start the hunt as these things can take a long time.

You also need a paper trail. Put things in writing/email, rather than accept things verbally. You need to have records of this woman's actions, her awareness of what she is doing and your employer's helplessness.

I think that there has been a lot of good advice. I'd just like to extend my sympathy to you and to agree that your colleague's behaviour is absolutely inexcusable. She cannot have missed some of the front page stories of people dying from exposure to nuts.

Yes, yes to leaving a paper trail.

I am the bolshy type so would strongly consider calling an ambulance one day. And then let the cards fall where they will. But you have to consider just how scary you will let yourself get before you do that.