Should you work with a cold?

[autienotnaughty]

I have been so ill this year. In seven weeks I have been ill give of them. This is my third cold. Symptoms have ranged from sickness, dizziness, nausea, headache, face pain, sneezing, blocked nose , lethargy, coughing, tiredness, ear ache. I work part time and so far I've managed to only take two days off. By resting on non working days. (Around kids obviously)

Work policy is we should not come in if ill it equally there is a sickness process if you take too much time off. So basically don't get ill.

I work with customers so no work from home option.

If you are sneezing, coughing, weak etc. but could technically go to work. do you go?

@banjocat
you do know that you can reduce the droplet spread of airborne virus by coughing/sneezing into a hanky right. And you do know that the virus lives on surfaces, both your hand or an inanimate surface for well over 24 hours right. Which is why the greatest risk is contact and people sanitising can reduce (not eliminate) risk.

I’m in a role where I have to go in with a cold. I would have taken over two weeks off if I’d taken the days I was symptomatic off, I’m still coughing and snuffling. A cold is a cold. Think the trick is to boost immune systems rather than avoid people!

Honestly we spent all of 2020/21 going on about not spreading virus and infection.

And now it's get yourself to work unless your leg is hanging off. Vulnerable people typically suffer more greatly from things like colds, so how about just stop spreading infectious illnesses?

I do, however, sympathise with people who aren't paid when they're off sick and fully understand why the decision is made in those instances to go to work.

How close are you to your colleague? And how close do you have to get to customers?

It is difficult trying to balance things.

I used to but not so much these days, since Covid it feels wrong. I am a dentist so very close to vulnerable people. If I have a little cold I will wear FFP3 for old people but wouldn’t come in with full on horrible symptoms any more.

I judge it on if I’m well enough to pop to the shops or do jobs at home, I’m well enough to go to work.

The world would grind to a halt if we all stayed at home with a cold!

I'm a special needs teacher. If my team and I had all taken time off when we have been ill this term, the setting would have had to close multiple times (we need safety ratios). I'm quite sure that would have gone down like a bucket of sick.

Honestly if you work in a school 75% of staff have a cold atm. If we followed the stay off mentality no school would be open! Crazy!

Ha @WASZPy beat me to it!

I did, and then ended up in hospital, so next time I'm staying home.

Depends on the cold. Some are flu-like and I stay in bed. If it's mild then I go to work. I've gone to work before, realised I feel worse than I thought, and gone home again.

Humans need to be in an environment where pathogens pique our immune system, that way we become capable of making antibodies quickly. So for a cold then yes just go to work, maybe wfh if you can on the day or so that's particularly bad.
Of course if you have a temperature or flu stay home and in bed

It would also grind to a halt if everyone went into work with something nasty and passed it around making everyone ill.

The OP is talking about colds.

People have always gone to work with colds and the economy has never ground to a halt.

Same here.

Taking time off for a cold isn't the norm at all - your class will probably be covered by another member of staff who also has a cold and could've really done with not teaching in their free...

There was a week or so when nearly the whole department (approx 15 staff) had a cold in varying stages. It was only the two youngest who took time off...again.

If I've got a cold I do avoid the staffroom and being around other people more than necessary though.

I think it really does depend on your job.

Please don't. My lungs were hammered by Covid in 2020 and now I'm told to avoid getting respiratory illness wherever possible. People coming into work sick means I have to take steroids to try and avoid getting sick. If you must go in, try to sit away from others.

If you’re at risk of getting in to trouble for taking a day off, and you feel physically it is not impossible to go in, I would go in. If you pass it on to your colleagues, that’s the fault of your employer’s sick absence procedures. It would not be fair for your colleagues to expect you to put your job at risk.

If I don't go to work I don't get paid so I don't really have a choice. Can't wfh either.
It's shit but I rarely come into close contact with anyone at work so can keep my germs to myself.

Unfortunately if everyone was off work every time they had a cold the economy would grind to a halt. They are very common! That's not to say they can't be awful though, some can make you feel genuinely poorly and unable to work depending on the job you do. I think with everything, use your judgment. Work if you're able to, call in sick if not.

I am SE, so I have no choice - into work unless D&V, covered in blood or unconscious. With a cold I wouldn't think twice. Have bills to pay!

I'm rarely ill, and if I am It only for a day or two, unless exceptional, like a few weeks ago I go this virus going round and it knocked me for 6 for about 3 weeks. I still worked through it though because I work from home and I was able to work. The first 2 days I had it, were luckily a weekend and by the Monday the fever had subsided a bit and I was able to work, just not at my normal level of productivity.

Being self employed most of my career, I have never taken time of sick, if I don't work, I dont get paid and I'm lucky to rarely get ill.

I'm lucky now though, because although I'm a contractor, they pay us like we are salaried, with holiday pay too. If I am ill I'd just say so and work again when I can, with no penalties. If I felt a bit ill I could just say i'm not feeling well, I'll log back on later and its fine. The MD occasionally says she's logging off to lie down due to a migrane.

Becasue we all get our work done its very flexible with no clock watching of who is online when. That culture is also helped by us being all over the world and there ae time zone differences so everyone is trusted to do their hours or just get their work down. No takes the piss either.

I don't get paid if I don't work, so unless I'm physically unable then it's hi ho...

Min wage and SSP here and not paid for the first few days off... so it has to be a bad one where I question whether I can function before I go off sick. Bills need paying.

I agree with this. Hope you get better soon though.

It is one of the great ironies of teaching that it is really, really hard to justify time off if you’re ill but it’s also an incredibly hard job to do when you’re ill: you can’t just take it easy or hide at your desk, you have to be at the top of your game because you’re essentially performing.

I always go in with a cold, but I sometimes find it so hard to talk that I may as well not have bothered!

I work in customer service. My colleague is immediately right of me about 30 cm away. Customers who see me at the desk are roughly 1/2 metre away but I also assist customers aged from 2 - 90's.

I would feel bad if I passed anything on to colleague (or customers) right before Xmas. But I also don't fancy another meeting about attendance. I've got two days until work so hoping to be on mend.