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 am so glad that this has got a good outcome. You deserve to be kept safe at work and these include personal and reasonable adjustments.

well done for sorting reasonably and confidently!

Good result. I’m glad you’ve been taken seriously.

All sounds positive; well done! Let us know how it goes when Squirrel Nutkin is next in the office...

It's so interesting. My child goes to a nut free school, also the scouts troup they go to is nut free and they are not allowed to bring any food in from home due to the severity of this allergy. Why is this such a big issue?

Having a close friend with this allergy I know the danger. I honestly don't see why eating nuts would be more important than putting someone's life at risk?!?

I'm glad your work is taking it seriously (finally) I hope you feel reassured.

But it’s not a nut free workplace.

Thanks for the update.
Go You💪

I think I'm probably missing your point but for all intents and purposes, this room in this particular workplace is, in fact, a nut free workplace. Or at least, it has been designated as such.

I can't believe the amount of skeptical, belligerent people on this thread denying or doubting that a person can be allergic to the point of anaphylaxis when an allergen is present in the room. Seriously, what is wrong with you? It makes the world a terrifying place for those of us with a serious allergy ourselves or loved ones with one. Give your heads a wobble, get out of your own arse and realise that actually you are not a highly informed allergen specialist, you are a random person with selfish opinions thinking that you have more right to eat nuts wherever you want than a person has of being safe from a deadly reaction.

How did she react when she was told she was moving?

People like this nut eater do not care about airborne allergies as it doesn’t affect them, so it is irrelevant to them. Just watch when something / anything affects them and not even in a life threatening way, and they squeal like piggies.

Good outcome

I would think I that most decent people in OPs office choose not to eat nuts regardless of which room they're in

I mean people are used to not sending their DC to school with nuts just in case

You'd have to be a real knob to eat nuts in a workplace with a few people allergic to nuts

Just eat your nut based foods at home or elsewhere

This is not a great position for you to be in, and whilst I agree that she is clearly in the wrong you also need to be careful.

You are in your probationary period. Your manager can easily terminate you. At this point, you have zero employment rights. So you are right to be logical and take this into account.

A sensible option would be to work remotely temporarily. For example, if your probation ends in approximately 1 month ask to work remotely (if you can) until you pass the probationary period) once you are employed fully tell your manager that you have tried working remotely but it is difficult for x, y, and z reasons and that you need to come back to the office however your colleague either needs to move to another office or stop eating nuts at work. Tell them you are happy to provide a copy of your medical summary from your GP surgery (ask for one that includes allergies) to indicate that you have an allergy to this. Advise your manager that the allergy is severe and that using Piriton is not working for you. Give the manager the chance at this point (as I said when probation has ended) to rectify the issue. Make sure you follow up the meeting with an email confirming what was discussed. If nothing happens then you need to go over the manager's head to their manager and stress that this is a health issue at work and the company/organization is liable should you have a serious issue at work.

This seems the most sensible way you can protect your job the most. Sadly being in your probation period isn't helping. In an ideal world, the manager would have told her she can't eat nuts in the office and staff safety trumps ANY discrimination claim made by her regarding her food preferences.

Good luck OP

If the OP’s nut allergy qualifies as a disability under the Equality Act 2010 - and it appears it’s serious enough to - then it’s not true to say OP has zero rights. Her disability is a protected characteristic under the Act, and as such gives her rights from day one.

Under the Act the employer is required to make reasonable adjustment for her condition - which they have already done, by making the room in which she works nut free. If they don’t enforce it, it’s discrimination. If there is any suggestion of her employer terminating her because of her disability - unless it’s demonstrably performance related, or no reasonable adjustment is possible - it’s discrimination and she can sue, regardless of any probationary period.

The OP shouldn’t have to work from home because the conditions in the office make it difficult for her to manage her disability - again, that’s discrimination and if she were to have to quit, she would have a case for constructive dismissal.

The employer is breaking the law by allowing one employee to breach a protected workspace created for the safety and well being of another, who is disabled. To suggest that the OP should somehow compromise for fear of losing her job is just wrong. The employer has a legal obligation to deal with it, or risk a claim for unfair dismissal. And if you read the OP’s updates you’ll see that they have done so.

Well done on standing up for yourself! It’s a shame it took threat of ACAS.