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 AM NOT SICK

I’d expect the general public to have a level of colds rn and absolutely wouldn’t expect everyone to stay home. I’d also prefer random people didn’t shout at others about that.

I can tell the difference from someone who has a nasty cough than someone with a bit of a lingering cough. Also people who are unwell know the difference. If you know you’re unwell try not to spread your germs out of sheer common courtesy.

To be fair you’d be better off selling your services to the NHS if you can tell if someone is unwell or not just by hearing them cough

Yes no one needs to go around shouting . But someone calling some one selfish is not as bad as someone wantonly inflicting illness on others because they are bored at home or fancied a coffee

Maybe I’m just better at coping with minor ailments than you but I think a cold is no big deal and in no way worse than being abused by a stranger in public. I can only assume the latter has never happened to you, lucky you.

Meh just ignore him.

I'm one of those annoying people who need to be careful as I'm on chemotherapy. However I keep away from crowded places at the moment because it is MY issue. The world doesn't need to stop because someone is ill. For all you know you weren't contagious any more but you'd never know anyway without a viral test. There could have been other people sat around him who were infections but currently asymptomatic. He's just picked on you because you visibly behaved as if you were infectious (not that you can help it)

For what it's worth, I have a cough sometimes it sounds squeaky other times it sounds chesty. I absolutely have no bugs (wonderful hospital stay on Friday tested for everything) but have fluid on my lung so probably sound similar to you. I'd be fuming if someone told me I was selfish for coughing.

Id have no issue at all if someone wanted to make a complete and utter fool of themselves having a go at me for being perfectly fine 🤣

I’m feeling a bit disturbed by the poll - a large enough sample to suggest 1 in 4 people think it’s ok to speak to someone in public like this for coughing. Maybe this could be acceptable if you stood over someone and coughed on them and their food. To me this wouldn’t even be acceptable during covid. People have always been out and about with coughs and/or colds. People have free will. The amount of people supportive of authoritarianism freaks me out.

As someone with a very vulnerable premature baby, yes I’d expect anyone still recovering from a cold with obvious and contagious symptoms to stay away from enclosed and crowded places. Obviously, you can’t isolate forever, but people honestly don’t get the damage to others that can be done by a simple cough. If my baby catches a cold, it could very well mean hospital time with serious RSV. That’s on me to try and keep him away from places he might pick something up, but like you, we can’t isolate our whole lives and I can’t predict who will launch a coughing fit next to his pram. People with a cough/cold can predict that, though, and presumably stay away from wherever they risk close quarters with others.

Well exactly. People seem to forget how businesses needed to be propped up with grants during Covid. That not something that can be done indefinitely.
Lots of people working in customer facing roles simply can’t stay at home every time they have a cold.
Nobody will benefit from the economy collapsing.

You can absolutely be fairly dismissed from any job if you have repeated sickness absence, whether it’s in the sainted NHS and following sickness policy or not. You are employed to do a job and if you don’t do it due to being off sick all the time you should absolutely expect to eventually find yourself binned off so they can take someone on who can actually turn up to work

No one should be shouting and abusing . but if I had to choose between a random stranger telling me I was selfish or a cold then I’d choose the words anyway. I can easily respond to that & resolve any misunderstanding if I can be bothered to. Perhaps I am just thicker skinned than you.

Maybe you are. But you represented your opinion as fact.

Tbf id definitely rather be yelled at. People who yell at someone in public who is minding their own business being completely passive will always end up looking way worse

and yet in the nhs that’s vanishingly rare
They have all manner of mechanisms to work around illnesses and as long as people work within that and engage with the process they arent
They would only be made redundant if they could no longer work at all and adjustments weren’t possible in order to achieve getting them back to work
a few examples might be
A surgeon going blind may not be able to be a surgeon anymore but could be a consultant with support in an advisory role but not operating
A porter who loses both legs and can’t push a trolley in a wheelchair may be given a desk job managing porters if he’s prepared to train

If however neither engage or are found to be lying about their illnesses then there’s only so much the nhs can do

Absence itself is not a reason within the nhs to sack someone

( Gross misconduct etc are obv separate reasons to sack people but irrelevant here )

It's mad isn't it? There was a thread this week about someone being sick in the night. Hundred and hundreds of posts about bleaching everything, cancelling visitors last minute, abandoning pre-planned trips out etc etc. I think it stopped short of erecting a full-on Casualty style hazmat disinfection tent at the front door, but it was ludicrous.

Turns out that the person who was sick in the night had appendicitis.

No one said anything about having a go at you & causing a scene. And like you say you’re not even sick.
But if someone who is clearly sick is told quietly by a departing stranger that they’re selfish to spread their germs then they can .

It's particularly bizarre on a thread presumably containing mostly women. Because if we did institute a social norm of it being ok for anyone who's sufficiently arrogant to shout at others if they've unilaterally decided that person shouldn't be in public, it's pretty fucking obvious which sex are going to be the easier targets.

Any sickness on here is treated as though it must be norovirus.

i was sick once because of a hangover. Asked for quick cures and got told I must isolate for at least a week lest I spread norovirus across the globe. It was just a hangover 😂

In response to the PP who had done exactly the same …But I think most rational ppl would agree that physical is worse than verbal !

I think they’re bonkers tbh to think they can call random people selfish over a cold.

I think it’s bonkers to go about spreading your germs . I guess it’s just the difference between selfish ppl in society vs others who have common courtesy

Ah even better if the person says it quietly, when ive got a cold my ears bung up so id likely not hear a word they said anyway 👍 and good for the person that probably no one else would hear too!

If it helps them feel better though, to just talk to thin air, then they can go for it as far am im concerned.

People with colds will be everywhere. It’s not covid times. Get on a bus or go in a cafe and be realistic about how many will have colds. If you really want to avoid it you can stay home, preferable to telling random people off.