AIBU to think sick colleague should be at home

[CountrycottageSusie]

I work in an open plan office with 10 other people. One of my colleagues had been off yesterday and then came in today. They said they had been really unwell over the weekend, temperature chills etc and had tonsillitis they day before and started antibiotics yesterday, they look quite sick and have been coughing and sniffing all morning, just feel they shouldn't be in the office, im worried ill get sick too and I have little kids. AIBU to think they should have stayed home another day or two while they are on antibiotics?

Do they get sick pay if they stay off? In an ideal world everyone would stay off if unwell BUT if you can’t afford the day off, or if you work for a company who has strict attendance requirements, you can’t really blame anyone who doesn’t.

If they can productively work from home then yes absolutely they should have stayed home.

Many people do have this mindset that they just carry on regardless. My SIL caught a vomiting bug and went to the hairdressers - had to leave the chair twice to be sick.

Equally if they can't work from home and they feel up to it then I don't blame them for going in

Totally get where you’re coming from, but unfortunately so many companies have barbaric sickness “absence management” policies. It’s so wrong. I don’t even know how it’s legal to have these policies in place, but somehow it is.

Your sister in law is an absolute dick, I would be raging if I was at the hairdresser and would have told her to leave. Awful.

OP if she can work from home then YANBU.

They do sound too ill to come in. Antibiotics usually take forty eight hours to kick in.

I'm sick, on antibiotics, and in work today. Pretty certain i'm no longer infectious as I'm at the chest infection stage. Im also flat out busy.

One of my staff members is off sick and everyone else having to pick up the slack.

Reality is that I'd love to be in bed right now, but I'd have dozens of clients complaining.

Just to update, yes they would be entitled to sick pay and they can also work from home which makes it more frustrating. They only started the antibiotics yesterday afternoon

What's the absence policy? They may be up to disciplinary stage

Its all very well saying they SHOULD be off, but its not always financially possible. The company I work for, and many others, offer no sickness pay/sick days. I've had flu since Christmas Eve and have had to use a weeks PTO otherwise I would have had to force myself into work. As a single parent, I don't have a choice.
A lot of companies will also come down like a ton of bricks on any sickness, which makes it very difficult for staff to be off sick without fear of consequences.

(Edited - crossposted with OP. If they can WFH and are entitled to sick pay, they shouldn't be in the office)

I've worked for the same company for nearly 15yrs. If you looked at my sickness record I've had 1-2 days max up until this year. However, this year has absolutely screwed me! I've had 3 bouts of sickness (2 days off max), and I'm currently off work today on my 3rd cold/flu during December alone! I've taken it as a holiday as I'd be on the route to a flagged sickness meeting with HR if my boss wasn't lovely and let me book it in as a holiday instead.

Sometimes you are just genuinely ill and you can't just ring in sick 🫠

Its an NHS job, we have a good sick policy

Must be a pretty big office if there's 10 of you in there though? Just don't rub your face against theirs... You'll be fine 👍

Not being funny but if someone is really ill (to the point they are on antibiotics), is entitled to (full) sick pay AND can work from home, there is no way on earth they would be in the office unless they needed to be for some reason!

If they can WFH then it would be better for everyone, including them, if they did.

But with something like tonsillitis I think most people would be back at work once past the feverish, can't eat anything phase.

@CountrycottageSusie How many days off can you have before its eg stage 1 meeting etc at least thats how our company did it

Oooh you can't win though, when you're off they're saying why are they off. I always worry about this.

But I agree it's good if you can work from home.

if they can WFH, then yes of course!

That's disgusting

I’m an nhs nurse and wouldn’t say it’s a good policy! I had to come in with same symptoms after Christmas and was genuinely really poorly but no choice as otherwise sickness stage would be worse and I’m now not allowed to do OT despite us being so short. If she’s on antibiotics, her tonsillitis is bacterial

If it's NHS, there are potential negative repercussions to sick leave. Great that they do sick pay, but that doesn't solve any Bradford Factor related problems.

So comes down to whether there'd be any issues with them remote working. If it's completely fine to do it whenever you want, or whether it's some grudging thing you'll be expected to apologise for and get arsey comments off the boss. 'Can work from home' covers both extremes and a lot in the middle.

This... damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Same with schools.. ooh don't come in until at least 48hrs after last sick episode..
letter home: come in for a meeting about attendance
🙄

What's their line manager like? I used to work for an absolute sociopath who refused to let anyone wfh and would regularly threaten our jobs if we were off sick. Her attitude was I want you in the office whatever state you're in and I will look at you and send you home if you're that bad. Which she never did. (I realise this was 100% not OK and thankfully I no longer work there!) But dreadful managers do exist, and people might be afraid of repercussions.

The NHS has a shocking sick policy - my cousin had to attend a disciplinary meeting for her attendance during COVID when her 3 kids caught it in succession so she legally had to isolate 3 times!