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?

I presume then the op has only ever worked in very small organisations

I'm not sure you're reading any of my words.

It's perfectly normal to mention a nut allergy in passing before formally starting somewhere and for the staff to take it upon themselves to make an adjustment, especially if it's a small team.

The OP might have worked in a nut-free environment before due to their colleagues taking it upon themselves to create that environment, rather than being told by HR that they should.

Most people don't want to kill the new joiner, especially if the new joiner is there to pick up some of the slack, thus making their life easier!

It is incredibly rare to come across someone who doesn't give a damn about a colleague's life threatening allergy. Most people are considerate. It's completely plausible this is the first time the OP has encountered someone with such a selfish attitude and is at a loss as to how to resolve this.

You haven’t worked In big open plan offices then. With multiple teams. In the same very large room

It's perfectly normal to mention a nut allergy in passing before formally starting somewhere

your nut allergy is not as fraction as serious as the OP’s by the sounds of it. I imagine one’s approach to nuts is a bit more than a “mention in passing” if it’s life or death

Reasonable adjustment isn’t enforced by HSE. It comes under the Equality Act 2010 which was designed to ensure fair treatment at work for disabled people. If the OP’s allergy qualifies as a disability under the Act (and from what’s she’s said, it sounds as though it does) once she makes her employer aware of it, they then have an obligation under the Act to make ‘reasonable adjustment’ in order to make sure that she is not disadvantaged at work by her condition.

In the OP’s case it’s an easy adjustment. No-one eats nuts in the office where she works. The employer has already done this and put up warning signs to that effect. One employee is disregarding it, and the employer needs to ensure that they understand the severity of the allergy and the possible consequences. The employee then has two choices, either stop introducing a dangerous allergen into the presence of someone vulnerable to it, or move to the other office.

Well she clearly has hasn’t she ? So what’s your point? The employer is aware that two employees have allergies and has made her office a nut free environment, with signage to that effect. The only fly in the ointment is a returning employee who appears to be hell bent on sabotage.

Doesn’t make a jot of difference how large or small the organisation is. The Equality Act covers all employers. And if the OP’s allergy is serious enough to be covered as a disability under the Act, then the employer needs to show they’ve made every effort to provide a reasonable adjustment. Banning the eating of nuts in the office where she works is an easy adjustment - as previous posters have pointed out, most people wouldn’t want to see any harm come to a colleague and will happily comply.

This.

@twostraws i agree. In my first year of uni there was a girl with a severe peanut allergy in my halls of residence. I didn’t understand that she wasn’t allowed to be exposed to nuts at all and made the mistake of making a peanut crunch thing which led to a stray nut being left on the worktop. I was horrified when another flatmate saw it and spoke to me about it and told me exactly how allergic she is.

Once I’d checked with her and she confirmed that yes, it could have caused a reaction, I just apologised and made sure I didn’t eat peanuts in our flat again. She was really gracious about it too.

It wasn’t a problem for any of the other students on our floor either. We were all aged 18-20. It’s remarkable that this mother/ working woman, who I assume is at least in her 20s if not older, can’t show the same regard in a professional context as a bunch of teenagers living away from home for the first time.

Sort it out between yourselves? No, your manager needs to get a backbone and tell this woman she’s putting people at risk. I’d just ban all eating at desks if she didn’t listen. Who does she think she is?

She's a selfish cow . She could eat those nuts at home . She's doing this on purpose.

That may well be a “reasonable” policy in a very small company

Not in a large open plan offices with teams working alongside us.

cakes, bars, cereal, snack packets of nuts,

But reasonable adjustment is NOT the same for all companies irrespective of size and finances. Thankfully the HSE acknowledges different standards apply

most people wouldn’t want to see any harm come to a colleague and will happily comply.

agreed

but my point is - In large open plan offices, of which there are many ie call centres, insurers, banks etc - you have hundreds on one open plan floor. Multiple teams side by side who barely interact with one another.

Should nuts be banned in the workplace? We don't typically recommend complete bans of any food allergens because they can be very difficult to enforce, may lead to a false sense of security and cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment.

from https://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/living-with-serious-allergies/allergens-in-the-workplace/#:~:text=Should%20nuts%20be%20banned%20in,guarantee%20an%20allergen%2Dfree%20environment.

I had a similar issue (not involving an allergy but a disability related issue). My union were nothing short of cowardly with dealing with it and just wouldn’t put their foot down. Anyway, I arrived at work one day, was presented with the issue and just thought “fuck it” and left. I drove off to a local car park and called HR, told them why I wasn’t in work. Anyway, 30-45 mins later I arrived back on site and everything was resolved and I never had another issue. I think sometimes with things like this you just have to stamp your feet a bit because being nice just doesn’t get through people’s thick skulls when they’re this way inclined.

get it all in writing.

Tell your manager that it is a life threatening condition and you will not put up with it. Her ML does not, i think, trump your disability.

I'm quite surprised at the answers here given that many people have to send nut-free lunch/snack boxes to schools because of one child.

Anyone who is on #TeamNut here is selfish

No one is “on Team Nut” as far as I can see

all those saying "the company can't make itself nut free or have a nut free office" are #TeamNut

I'm a registered dietitian and for some people it can be lethal, allergies like this can evolve over time and while quite unusual, it can happen. It's like some coeliacs can't even walk past a bakery without reacting and others don't get outward symptoms. Allergy is a complex area. I'm not even a specialist in it but I know that it's not worth risking that one time. Anaphylaxis can be fatal, it needs to be taken very seriously indeed.

I have a severe airborne nut allergy, I have been in icu on a ventilator before because of it. If someone knowingly put my life at risk like that I would have them arrested. I went from a mild allergy to nearly dying because of exposure, please don't be polite about this.

Those who don't believe that allergies can be airborne because there is no mechanism for this, maybe read up about volatile organic compounds (vocs).

Have you got a consultant who can write a letter to the individual concerned explaining the seriousness of your condition? How would she feel if one of you died because of her actions? Though I hope to God it doesn’t come to that.

No, we are debating the point “reasonable adjustments” without any abuse or nastiness. Just debating. Like adults. It’s not “team but” to be interested in exploring the issue more broadly