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?

My DS loves travelling but wont go to the far east because of worries about the amount of sesame seeds there are in foods out there and languages barriers and maybe how seriously they actually take allergies.

Go over the head of this "manager" and report this directly to the owner.

This makes me furious, what a spiteful,ignorant person. She can do without her nuts for a few hours! Can you involve a union?

um she wrote wfh is not an option. “proper allergy”??? Mate did you READ her post or just scan a few words here and there??

Honestly? I’d probably complain loudly about her eating nuts, wait an hour and then fake collapse at your desk, get a few days paid sick leave and hopefully she’ll get the point

Ask to see the risk assessment as (assuming there are more than 5 employees?) they have a legal responsibility to have carried this out. It should deal with your specific allergies as they are so severe and it should say no nuts in your area.

If you come to harm due to either no risk assessment or worse ignoring measures stipulated in one, then they can be prosecuted.

Wow, quite shocked your work colleague can return to work and act so untitled. Your manager needs a back bone, put her big girl pants on and actually manage her team. The room is nut free for a reason !

You jeed to email and have everything documented so if they don't follow through and you have a reaction or if they let you go you can sue the crap out if the selfish stupid ignorant pigs

The longer you accept this, the harder it will be to enforce the no-nut policy.

she will simply claim that you “didn’t have a problem before” and therefore should accept it…

Definitely.

Get your reactions documented by a doctor in a letter that underlines you cannot be exposed to this.

That’s not cool. In my husband’s old work, there was a colleague who had a nut allergy. To enable safety, a bank of three desks was designated as completely nut free. That’s where they sat and you were only allowed to sit there (even if she wasn’t in the office) if you didn’t have nuts with you. This is someone’s life FGS.

This is a health & safety matter specifically covered by section 2 e of the H&SW Act and management have a duty to comply. They also have a duty to consult with their employees, e.g they shouldn't be leaving it for you to sort out!

They are deliberately putting your & your colleagues health at risk.

Please make this official issue. No matter how big or small the company. You need in writing that working conditions have caused a issue to your health and get medical records or a report (go to your GP) explain the sore throat ect that it is to a work college eating nuts around you. Get a copy of go letter and express that they need to take this matter serious. As for probation if they let you go once again collect paper chain evidence that it was due to work “social” issues rather than your work. Go straight to a work solicitor and sue for unfair dismissal.

Firsthand experience here.
some severe allergies are airborne. You feel symptoms before you have even noticed or known the food is in the room. An epipen only can buy you 15 mins until an ambulance arrives, the epipen may not trigger or may not work, it is pot luck. Yes it is manslaughter if you are exposed and the eater knew. Once someone is charged with a crime, these ignorant tossers will think differently. Oh and it can and is happening more and to anyone. We tampered with food and the environment and now this it’s prevalent and being passed on in the dna.

This is excellent advice , please do this tomorrow morning .

I’ve been in this situation as a manager. I told the nut eater to stop being a nob and eat his nuts outside. When he complained I asked how he’d feel if the person with the allergy died due to his snacks. He genuinely didn’t understand that this was a potential consequence. Your managers need to take this seriously. If not start looking for another job.

Please do use all of the resources posted so far on this thread, and add to them, including this factsheet from Allergy UK Anaphylaxis-and-severe-allergic-reactions.pdf (allergyuk.org) - and it looks like they are advising you to get in contact with your GP for an allergy action plan - please do explain to your GP that you are having trouble breathing when a colleague brings nuts into the office, and specifically ask the GP to include the words in your allergy action plan that nobody else should bring nuts into your work environment.

I'd also email your boss, the bloody nuts woman, and whatever passes for HR (openly in the same email) every time she eats nuts in the office and state that you are having trouble breathing today as a result of there being nuts in the office today. Remind boss that failure to be able to breathe causes death; spell it out that DEATH is a realistic consequence of the continued abuse of the no nuts policy in the workplace. and that you have a right to be able to breathe in the workplace (FFS!) whereas there is no right to be able to bring a food that somebody else is severely allergic to, into the office. "Remind" them all of the policy for your office to be nut free. Request, repeatedly, in writing, that Fucking Nuts Colleague refrains from bringing nuts into the office.

If there isn't positive, written agreement to adhere to the no nuts policy, forward the email chain to an employment law solicitor, openly CCing all of the above people.

Keep a copy of all written correspondence OFF SITE: i.e. print outs or emailed to yourself at a personal email address.

This is outrageous, I would send a strongly worded email to your manager about your rights as some of the advice above. I’d also encourage you to make it clear what the fallout could be if the worst happens and you fall seriously ill, in terms of the impact on the company as they’d be responsible both legally and ethically. What a horrible cow your coworker is!

Fuck me she’s a bitch. Even if she’s some wanker who doesn’t believe in anaphylaxis, the fact that she knows she making you wheeze and have a reaction and she’s continuing is evil and vile and bordering on criminal. She’s knowingly doing something to injure your person, possibly threaten your life. Cos she won’t eat her fucking nuts outside at lunch time. @Yewdontknowme you are 100% in the right and I hope she gets recognised and her arse handed to her or ACAS help tomorrow.

This. Also an epipen carrier. An epipen isn’t some magical treatment that cures the anaphylaxis and you go about your day. It buys you time until you get an ambulance and hospital and they start treatment to support you until the reaction ends.

It just amazes me why some
human beings behave this way . She clearly knows you are allergic and still makes those comments and doesn't want to move .

@Yewdontknowme thinking about it more, it really does seem like a legal/police thing as she’s knowingly doing something, which doesn’t affect her to stop, that is actually physically injuring you when she knows this. It’s evil. And I wonder if it’s an assault level? Surely they would get your boss to listen.

It’s a shame you are a vegatarian, only because you could bring in half a pig and have it on your desk. I’m the worlds worst for being offensive but I would never put harm in anyone’s way.

Can you bring it up with HR? This Ask A Manager (great for work advice although American) post is great for describing the right tone, once you know where you stand legally:
https://www.askamanager.org/2009/03/how-to-tell-your-boss-hes-breaking-law.html