People being ill at work

[lonelyweather]

I work in a management (admin) role in a hospital. We have a large shared office with another team. last week one of the other team members came in with a fever and the shivers. I tried to avoid him but here I am now with a fever, a snotty nose, and achey limbs.

its not as bad as the flu (and I’ve had the vaccine anyway) but is definitely not pleasant and I’m going to have to miss some key in person events tomorrow as - unlike other team man - I am not going to come into work (in a hospital!!!) with a contagious viral disease.

(May also be swayed by the fact I have a close family member with a chronic respiratory condition so I don’t take viruses lightly)

im so angry with him - aibu?

Yabu - his job and his f2f meetings are more important than everyone else’s job and/ or the health of patients and visitors he will come into contact with in public spaces so of course he should come in and spread his germs around.
yanbu - if you have an admin role and can wfh when you’re ill then you should work from home and protect your colleagues. He works from home 4 days out of 5 ffs! Why did he have to come in?

I think you should blame the nhs's antiquated attitude to sick leave and putting everyone on stages and monitoring whether they legitimately needed to go off sick or not. It forces staff to make shitty choices about whether to come in with a cold. I now work in private sector who doesn't monitor illness and the like and you get a lot fewer people coming in and spreading their germs

I work in the NHS and I think YABU as he likely didn't have a choice. The NHS sickness policy is grim, ours is 3 absences in a year and then it gets escalated. Given you also work in the NHS, you should probably know the sickness policy forces unwell people into work.

I’m fuming with my trainee who came in yesterday telling me he’d been throwing the day before and clearly sniffling. I’ve reminded him of the 48hr rule and that we don’t want whatever he has. So I considerate, he wouldn’t have missed anything vital or been missed.

Aargh I can see you lot are not going to let me wallow in self pity and righteous indignation about this.

i don’t know why he came in. But I do know that he worked from home for 3 weeks straight recently because his dog was having puppies so I was surprised to see him back in. He then spent the entire day shivering loudly, bringing all the spare radiators to his desk and walking round the office telling us how ill he was.

we work in a place with a lot of people who are immune compromised so in fact admin staff are encouraged to wfh when ill. He’s the manager of his team, as I am of mine. I don’t have to ask permission to wfh and I doubt he does either.

when im better I will have a word with him and see if we can agree a policy.

Also this time of year people need to prevent colds. Need to take at least vitamin D3 which the vitamin people lack this time of year as it’s the vitamin comes from sunlight.

Then if are a fussy eater, or have snotty DC and DGC. Then vitamin C.

From my experience, my fussy eating friends are always have colds.

Ok, well with your update, it does sound like he had the choice so he has been inconsiderate. Assuming he hasn't been put under pressure because he's already been home for 3 weeks.

Also this policy of 3 periods of sickness is unfair. As may get people who had 5 years of no sickness. Then get an unlucky year where they are ill. They get the same punishment as those who just touching distance to getting disciplinary action.

Surgery is not counted for many employers

I think it depends. I was once a teacher in a secondary school, there was a huge amount of pressure to go in when ill and everyone did. I used to get lots of colds and other viruses.

I now work in an organisation where everyone mainly works from home. Most people go the office no more than once a week, but it's not compulsory.

People WFH when they're ill so they don't pass their illnesses on to colleagues, it's kind of infomally expected that we would do that. But I realise we are fortunate to be in that position and it's not the case for all jobs. I rarely get ill these days.

If your colleague had the option to work from home and chose not to, YANBU. Your colleague was being inconsiderate.

If I asked that to my manager, I would be told that if I am too sick to come in, I am too sick to WFH and so I should take a sick day. And, if I had more than two episodes of sickness in 6 months, it would not be without repercussions.
Luckily, I don't need permission to work from home so can be flexible about that. His situation may be different.

The OP has posted an update saying that the colleague is a manager so didn’t need permission to wfh.

I don’t understand managers like yours. Surely it’s better to have one sick person working remotely than an office full of miserable people coughing and sneezing. In my company the unofficial policy is that we wfh if we have a cold. Absence due to sickness has gone down massively as most people will still work as long as they can get out of bed, but would be too unwell to commute.

Whilst it's clearly true that some people feel pressured to go into work it seems that probably isn't the case with this person.

However it does make me laugh that whenever we see a thread like this a number of people fall over themselves to say that just because you have been on top of somebody who is sick you might well have caught your illness from somebody else.

That could be the case but it's far more likely that the person who coughs all over you is the person who made you sick.

2 edged sword. I remember SARS and Swine Flu where at first sign of anything we were tested. The nurses and admin staff who were positive had an automatic 10 days out. Us Dr’s who tested positive were told to whack on masks, use gloves and crack the fuck on without complaint. So, that may colour my thinking somewhat🤣.

ETA- those directed to take 10 days off from testing positive, fully paid and not taken from their sick leave.

Whilst it's clearly true that some people feel pressured to go into work it seems that probably isn't the case with this person.

I kinda disagree. I think the brief history we have shows he is quite comfortable wfh, even for extended periods of time. So the fact that he went in even when sick does rather suggest there is a reason for it that isn't obvious. Pressure from somewhere?