Just got shouted at in a coffee shop for coughing in public 🥴

[wildgreyocean]

I know I’m not being unreasonable here but I just need some reassurance! I was in a coffee shop after popping to the shops and got a tickle in my throat. I’ve had a cold all week but nothing too severe. I coughed and next thing I know an old man is shouting at me that I’m being selfish and should be self isolating at home, and “don’t I know the NHS is on its knees?!”

AIBU to think this is a total overreaction to a cough?!

I had one of my twins in a neonate unit and everyone wore masks and full ppe
This wasnt during Covid

An NCT friends baby ( they were 11 months old ) died after catching a cold from a visiting child in a children’s ward.

They said the visitor didn’t even come near them but they shouldn’t have been there in the first place

The point is though if frontline nhs workers don’t mask up then yes they shouldn’t be there.
That goes for visitors too

but I understand atm most hospitals are requiring visitors to mask up …for a very good reason

It doesn’t have to be. Studies have shown that businesses are more productive and have lower sickness rates if employees do not go to work when ill.

You’ve gone to work all week with a cold. How many coworkers did you make sniffly? And would you have even caught the cold if another coworker who was sniffly before you had stayed home?

The attitude of go to work even when sick is partly what is dragging our economy down.

You’ve also completely misrepresented what I’ve said, multiple times, to suit your own narrative.

I was one of the last to come down with it.

I don’t know what you’re hoping to achieve here but you’re just making yourself look silly now.

You have said all that. All anyone has to do is hit “see all” on your posts to verify.

ANd my local cafe has 3 staff. If one is off sick, they have to shut... so make no money.

Well, you have changed your story a few times so perhaps I have failed to let go of your initial and likely most honest account.

Not everyone can afford time off sick. I started a new job a couple of months ago and don't get paid if I'm off sick until my probation is over so too right I'll be going in if I get a cold.

No, you’ve said I said that if I had Covid I’d have not done anything differently.

I actually said that although I’m going to test I’m not sure what difference it will make as what has happened, has happened! Perhaps you should get off your high horse every so often

That’s poor business management to assume no one will ever get sick or otherwise be unable to come into work. Staffing levels should always account for some level of absence.

Please do quote the post where I said if I had Covid I’d have done nothing differently.

That sort of behaviour would have made me cough even louder and more enthusiastically - right in his air space.

Parents send their kids to school with temperatures, not 48 hours clear of norovirus, with the flu, chickpox…. None of which are remotely similar to runny noses!!

But OP works for the nhs

Yes and after two instances of sickness you trigger protocols. I’m not going to call in sick for a minor cold when I know I’ve got very limited sickness!

Yes and after two instances of sickness you trigger protocols. I’m not going to call in sick for a minor cold when I know I’ve got very limited sickness!

It is OTT to shout at you, but I’m guessing he was anxious about it. I am asthmatic - atypical in that I don’t often noticeably wheeze, but cough instead. When this happens, or coughing when recovering from a cold and I’m near people, I always say “I’m not contagious, it’s my asthma/I’m past being contagious.

She has not said in what capacity though. For all we know, she could be in procurement and totally non-patient facing.

When I was working for the NHS (porter) I could come in with an absolute stinking cold and still have to stay there and work. And I was sometimes moving very ill young children around. I was not sent home.
Blame the system, not the staff.

I was tagging the person who mentioned not getting paid if they take days off sick

The nhs pay their staff whilst off sick

Yes, but they often make you stay working when you are sick. That has been my experience so many times. And I was dealing with sick kids.

Possibly and OP said they’d be sacked by the nhs in a week ( I think it was a week ) if they took time off for having a cold. ( I’m sure they’d win a case against unfair dismissal in court )

Nevertheless I was pointing out the nhs pay unlike the other poster who made a personal comment about them not being paid

My comment was about being paid

I’m saying if I called in every time I had a sniffle I’d be sacked.

another one who like to tell untruths.

The nhs guidance states as long as correct procedure is followed you can’t be sacked.
Plus you can self certify for 7 days.

No untruths here
It’s all in their own policies which I’m guessing you have

You absolutely can - if you’re abusing the system and calling in when you can work, you’ll be sacked.

Not if you are ill
if you are known to be off sick and out and about and not I’ll that’s abusing the system. That’s a completely different scenario to actually bring ill.

Even long term illnesses require the nhs to talk about and offer adjustments

This is one of the docs ( 9 pages ) of which there are many many more
All saying the same thing