To do something at work I've already been bollocked for and received a warning for twice?

[GingerGeorgie]

I've name changed for this but here goes.

For the last 3 weeks I've been doing something at work that hasn't impacted anyone at all and nobody has noticed...until Monday. On Monday a senior manager discovered what I'd been doing and was angry and asked my supervisor to have a word with me. The supervisor had a word and told me not to do it again. I apologised and said I wouldn't even though I don't really have an option but to continue doing it.

However, the very next day (Tuesday, yesterday) I did it again. I didn't expect anyone to notice, as like I said, I've been doing this thing for 3 weeks and nobody's noticed. Well, obviously someone was keeping an eye on me because I got caught and this time I got a proper telling off and a 'record of discussion' is now going on my file.

Now, my AIBU is, I really don't have much choice but to continue doing the thing, at least for the time being, so would it be really that bad to do it again on my next shift which is the weekend, where there will be skeleton staff who won't know I've already been in trouble?

Just to add, many staff members are doing a very, very, similar thing openly but slightly differently which I feel is unfair. And, to clarify, it's not office based; we are an establishment that is supposed to be all about supporting 'the thing' I'm doing.

Awwwwwww 😊

Yeah got tbh I read your OP and thought YABU. Then I saw your updates and the photo of the baby magpie and now I want to have a quiet word with your employers.

Is it not Puff?

Oh my gosh. This is wonderful!
I met a lady once who had a Corvid rescue, she had a few who stayed and never left. Completely flipped my idea about magpies.

my understanding about pigeon rearing is it’s really difficult and only a few places can manage it due to the correct pigeon “milk” mixture. If that brings any comfort to the poor nurse trying to

I mean, I probably would. But I'm an idiot and have almost written my car off to avoid hitting a squirrel and more recently, was 3 hours late to work because I saw a dog running down a main road on it's own and wanted to track him down and make sure he was ok.

Are you really willing to loose your job, over a bird? Seriously?

Charming. Personally I think people who throw insults around calling others cunts for daring to have a different opinion are actually the cunts. We only have one side of the story here so I’m certainly not miscalling the vets based on limited information. If that makes me a cunt then I can live with it. The bird should have been taken to a wildlife sanctuary.

I imagine it's from someone who has no idea what working with goverment agencies around avian flu is like

Assuming that you could reason with it, could not engage or decide what's a risk.

Lots of individuals, backyard rescues, small rescues just don't do any form of reporting, and don't follow the guidance which is unlikely to be followed up. They end up with no idea of what the guidance is and find it awful when people follow it

Similar to when a group of people just decided to not test for covid.

A vet doesn't have that luxury of just not engaging, sending animals off for testing etc and stands to lose a lot more.

Ironically my relative that was completely traumatised by their experience of a rescue they worked in being completed cleared out by apha, was further traumatised by lots of the public encouraged by other backyard rescues screaming about how they shouldn't have let the officers in, shouldn't have reported the case etc.

OP, I LOVE your baby magpie.

But.

There are really, really strict laws and regulations around the containment of bird flu. If this unbelievably beautiful little wild chick was found to be the source of bird flu in a vet's surgery, the fallout for your surgery would be massive.

I absolutely love your baby magpie and am incredibly jealous but I can really see why they don't want it to be kept on the premises and I think you should see if your son can help you out.

Have I mentioned how much I love this tiny baby?

I also think, OP, that if they dismissed you for repeatedly ignoring their instruction on this you would not have a leg to stand on. Seriously. He's absolutely beatiful but you can't keep him at the surgery.

Aw well done OP. I would do exactly the same.

If it's that thing then I'd probs think twice, but if it's the other thing then I'd probs crack on.

If it's neither then I'd go to the backup plan.

Baby magpie pic def changed my vote from U to NU, but given your employer has given bird flu as the grounds of their objection you are probably going to find another way to continue being NU

If you put the baby bird before your employment, I hope you have another source of income

Like the baby bird (you are NOT going to be able to fledge it) this will not fly

There are 20 minute test for bird flu as well as 24 hour ones. Surely your employer can sell you one of these and the problem goes away.
What am I missing?
Your bird is very cute.

I don't believe these are accepted by apha (happy to be corrected)

As far as I know if a bird came in with avian flu, then ops bird would need to be pts if it's in the same premises, but is also then seen as a link between that wild bird and any subsequent admissions. The risk from ops bird is fairly negligible but it would link all the patients (including mammals) together so break all the quarantine protections.

Say ops colleague went out to the car park with a wild bird flu case in a box, coming back in and sitting in the same building as ops bird would mean that the magpie would now be classed as a carrier because its a bird not under any quarentine procedures, where staff aren't changing scrubs, keeping it isolated in seperate air spaces.

I completely agree it's unlikely ops bird currently has it, but apha wouldn't see it that way.
Think of it like covid, ops bird is the one going from hospital ward, to hospital ward interacting with all the nurses who then are interacting with all the patients.

Apha don't test any birds in my experience beyond the initial bird, and all contacts beyond that are culled automatically hence why whole herds of chickens (1000s) are culled from a single case in a nearby barn

People have really had to fight to get other animals eg the alpacas I linked earlier, despite their being zero known cases in the species. They also had to close their shop etc despite it being a single case in a chicken (and cull all their chickens)

Apha England do not mess around. They are there to protect agriculture as an industry rather than individual birds so very much throw the baby out with the bath water

I also expect it will be ramped up soon because there's been more human cases and cases of it in mammals

The bird is very cute. But:

1. You've lied to your employer
2. You've repeated behaviour that you've been disciplined for TWICE
3. The vets are far more knowledgeable and qualified than you. You are seeing a tiny part of the picture and are refusing to look beyond that, despite the very clear warnings from people who CAN see the full picture. The fact that you cannot see a risk difference between a wild bird and a vaccinated dog just proves this
4. You're putting every animal that comes into the premises at risk
5. You're putting the business at risk of legal consequences - and by extension risking your colleagues' jobs

You may be prepared to lose your job over this - but are you sure that all the pet owners are prepared to lose their pets, and all your colleagues are prepared to lose their jobs through YOUR actions? It's unlikely, sure, but it's possible - it's not just whether YOU could live with the worst case scenario but whether EVERYONE around you could too.

Having said all that, I am glad that Orville is probably dead. Bastard "startled gooseberry" knee-perching incontinent wee prick that he was.

And that bellend of a monkey, come to that.

Is that a slightly darker death metal remix of Puff the Magic Dragon?

Very vary late to this thread, but wow, it is NOT what I expected from the first post!!

I too was quite startled by a PP urging us to punch the magic dragon. What the hell's he ever done except live by the sea??

Well luckily they look like soon they'll be old enough to be out getting a job, which is going to help you when work find out you've got him stashed inbetween the copier paper and the lever arch files again.

Ideally, we would all be able to take a baby magpie to work and hide it in a cupboard and nip in every hour or so to say hi and give it a snack, but I can see how, with avian flu and what not, and the vetinary setting, that's not going to fly. Hopefully your bird will soon, you wonderful wildlife rescurer you.

Thanks @Meltedbrains I did not know those things, but now that I do...

I imagine the reason they don't test beyond the first positive is because of the up to 2 week incubation period.

I get that the vets have to and should obey the law, but on a purely logical basis, if the bird has been visiting for 3 weeks already, it is likely apha (is that modern for MAFF?) would want it tested to either clear it or eutanise all it's contacts. And the vet isn't following that likely rule.

You sound like someone after my own heart
I quit a dream job over a rabbit (long story!) not getting the vet care it needed.
it also reflects a culture and respect for you as a person and what’s important to you.
so, yes I would.