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?

No, you should not go into work if you have a cold or any other contagious illness. It's so selfish. Just stay at home. The reason there is so much illness about is that people are too selfish to isolate when they're ill.

I do. It sounds like you really suffer whereas I'm quite robust. I have colleagues who go down badly with colds. It's unfortunate. Can you try and build up your immune system ?

I only go off sick if I'm too unwell to work although I can WFH but if I'm due in the office and feel ok, just a bit grim, then I go in. You get a bit of the hairy eyeball if you use "I don't want to spread it around" as an excuse to not go in the office.

I had a colleague once who was clearly starting a cold. Open plan office and she was sneezing all over me. Two days later, I had her cold. I was extremely pissed off that she hadn’t even bothered to sneeze into a tissue. I think it’s ok to take a day off with a cold.

Don't get sick pay but stay off even though you can manage going in? That's not a choice many have tbh.

Even with sick pay it adds to people's sick records so when they are actually unwell they might then have stress of absence monitoring etc.

It’s not really an option in my job. I have to go in unless I am really, truly too ill to be in.

I had a heavy cold in early November and was ill for around a week. I did take one day off when I had a very high temperature and couldn’t get out of bed, but soldiered on the other days.

Ive had a chest infection, cough, feel unwell again this week but I’ve been in. I don’t want to spread my germs but it’s just not an option to take a week off right now! I’d have to be hospitalised!

I take it you've either not done a days work in your life, or you can WFH? 🙄🙄

I mean it's not like anyone needs to pay rent/bills/mortgage/food.

Let's just all stay home for every single cold and see how long until we're homeless.

Yes, I go to work with a cold, as long as I feel up to it. 3 kids in 3 different schools and nurseries, our household is constantly cycling through various colds. I wouldn't have a job if I stayed off every time.
Anyone who thinks that's selfish, is welcome to send to send me a days wages, and I'll happily stay at home.

Agree. It does seem some people have maybe been a bit sheltered from certain workplace cultures (which is good for them!!).

Although tbh I wouldn't necessarily say an employer is bad for expecting people in if they are ill but ok to work. Depends how they are generally. They are a business ultimately and not many can afford to have people stay off if they have a sniffle.

Yes, I go in. I'm a teacher and I know that my absence would be felt keenly. I only took a day off there (first day in 9 months) because my chest had gotten so bad that I needed to see the doctor and look at getting antibiotics/steroid tablets. My work is more than an hour away so I knew I wouldn't be able to go there and go to the doctor.

at our workplace there is a sensible “work from home if you have a cold so that you don’t infect everyone” policy but obvs that can’t work for all workplaces
it’s a toughie, in most cases I’d say just battle on as not being there will create more work for colleagues but if you’re coughing and spluttering over colleagues and customers I’m not sure how that helps anyone. I’d hope it I was a manager in this scenario and you were clearly struggling I’d send you home again, on full pay.

I've just had 5 weeks of Covid. There is no way I could have gone anywhere to be honest. I'm self employed so managed a few hours every few days and thst nearly killed me.

In the past I have gone to work if I could function, stayed off if I couldn't. In 25 years I had 5 days off with sickness, but I would have been off for 5 weeks with Covid!

BBC News - Why Covid is still flooring some people
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67726685

For a cold I'd wear a mask and go to work, in your shoes.

Personally it completely depends on my illness and what I've got going on at work.

If I can, I'll be in the office but making a point to tell people I have a cold and to distance themselves from me (our desks are very well spaced out so I'm not within 6ft of people). I'll sanitise my hands, use tissues, take all the medication needed. If my presence in the office makes no difference to anyone else, I'll work from home. If I'm ill enough that I'm being sick, unable to complete my work or struggling to function, I'll take a sick day, but usually it's only one day.

Presume you are in the fortunate position of either not working or being able to work fully from home?

Patient facing NHS roll here. We’d be encouraged in if we had a cold but were generally well with it. My step brother is a teacher and it’s exactly the same for him.

Depends how bad I feel. If I feel awful then I don't go in, if I'm just a bit snuffly then I go in. I don't get any sick pay at all though so tend to struggle in and see how it goes.

Its unusual for a cold to make a healthy adult feel "weak".

Ive had three or four colds this autumn. Runny nose, bit of headache & earache. This can leave me feeling a bit run down but i find that taking paracetamol & ibuprofen help a lot. I had a bad chest at one point and had two days working at home instead of going in as I was coughing quite a lot.

I probably wouldn't go in if it only triggers a meeting. The 6 weeks off was obviously with good reason and your manager should appreciate you not wanting to infect your colleagues/ customers (but if they're a bit funny I would just say I was too ill to come in).

I do find some people's attitude to staying off bizarre. If I stayed off with every runny nose, headache etc I'd miss about 1 out of every 3 work days in winter.

Often you transmit viruses & bacteria before you are really symptomatic yourself, so not going in is closing the door after the horse has bolted. Our immune systems really aren't intended for us to live in sterile isolation.

I'm lucky that I can work from home when I have a cold so it's easy but I do get cross if colleagues come in with a cold!

I have hardly had one since lockdown but I have kept up the hand washing & hand gel!

Do you have any time booked off over Christmas?

I can understand why you feel you need to go to work but I think the fact that you keep getting sick indicates you're probably run down & vulnerable to bugs!

If you can take some time off without incurring the wrath of your colleagues I would do!

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.

Yup. And if you do take time off and are physically capable of it, setting cover work for all your classes and then having to mark it all when you get back is a nightmare. In my Y7 class on Friday afternoon it was hard for me to croak my way through a single sentence without it being drowned out by either me or a quarter of the students coughing.

Also, I'm pretty sure people can be contagious for several days before getting symptoms of a cold, so the colds would still be passed around even if people stayed off once they felt ill.

So many different colds, obviously green nose means infection, sore throat can mean infection all of which can be spread. A little blocked or clear runny nose I think people can soldier on. I've a rotten cold that I caught off DD now, congested, headaches, vomiting from coughing, diarrhea, dry throat which is making me cough, metal taste in mouth, can't taste food, my tongue stings when I put food on it . Hate feeling like this, keeping indoors just in case

Update

I felt slightly better Tuesday so decided to go into work Wednesday. By the afternoon despite meds I felt dreadful- headache, sneezing, coughing, nausea, dizziness. No option to go home as would have had to shut. (Public service) Colleague looked unimpressed. Spent all day today in bed feverish and shivering. It's literally set me back four days.

Moral of the story rest at home when ill.

I go to work with everything as I don't get sick pay.