To expect people ill with Covid stay home?

[LakelandHiker]

This week, my manager and a friend who goes to my exercise class are ill with Covid. I don't know if they've tested, but they've both said they have it. However one is still coming into the office and the other still attending the exercise class. AIBU or overreacting here... but why don't they stay home until clear? Even if 'feeling 95% better' wouldn't you wait until potentially exposing others? I can't help but feel mad at them both for being so selfish. I often look after an elderly relative and can't risk passing Covid on to her as she is frail. I get life can't be on pause forever but my manager can get paid sick leave and my friend can miss a class, it isn't like there's anything at stake...

Seems rather odd behaviour to test, tell everyone and do nothing about it, I agree. I understand not testing, or testing and staying at home, or testing and not telling anyone so nobody gets peeved if you do your usual activities. But not this specific combination!

DEAR GODDESS I UNDERSTAND THAT

You say “I’m ill with X” it’s not an announcement of a cold OR an announcement of Covid, it’s just a thing you say at work.

My objection was to you phrasing that it was an unreasonable announcement.

They are more unreasonable for announcing to everyone it’s Covid

You have a lovely evening with your chessboard, MsKittyPigeon

Or cant afford to tske time off work.

It's frankly bizarre that people are still testing for it.

I didn't say I didn't think many people were interested, though. You've misread my post.

Because most employers aren’t going to allow 40 plus days per employee off sick over the winter because of bloody Covid.

I've had 12. I have one twice a year.

What does that mean?

You can't stop people living their lives, but can we not reasonably expect people to live their lives but take basic precautions that reduce negative side effects on other people?

Why is staying home when ill when someone has a choice a negative effect that matters and can't be allowed to happen, but being infected with an illness by someone who could easily have stayed home a negative effect that doesn't matter? Even if you're a perfectly healthy person and it's just a cold, that's at the very least annoying and unpleasant.

What I mean is, I don't think the set of people testing is actually the set of people who are generally cautious about covid and who you might expect to avoid indoor exercise.

And unfortunately people can’t be taking 10 days off every time they catch it over winter - they have jobs to go to, bills to pay, people to feed.

id much rather stay at home but one year I had it six times.

I test if I have symptoms as I'm immunocompromised and eligible for the antiviral treatments if I test positive.

I understand people having to work, I take precautions myself and sit away from coughing and sneezing people (working from home isn't an option where I work)but it's a bit selfish if you're contagious and working from home is an option, and going to an exercise class is even more selfish.

OP literally said they are ‘announcing’ it. So go do your big letters at her if you want to carry on being pedantic. I don’t care about your objection 👍

Do you find it fucking sociopathic that some people get paid when they go to work, don't get paid when they don't go to work and cannot afford to not go to work?

Because those people are very often the ones who need to get on with their lives, aka not render themselves unable to pay their bills.

I do. See the last post I made, if you want to, where I acknowledge that it's the system in the UK that's the problem, not individuals.

(The individuals who choose to go to exercise classes, knowing they are infectious with something that could seriously harm someone else, on the other hand... I might get deleted for saying what I think of them.)

I don't expect people to go without pay or lose their jobs in order to stay at home if they have covid.

I personally would test and would wfh if i had covid - not least because I don't want my colleagues to get ill. My colleagues would do the same. I appreciate I'm lucky to be able to do this.

I think there is something wrong with our society (employers mostly I think) that they value attendance in an office over the health and wellbeing of their employees and the wider population, including those who are vulnerable.

I also think that maybe mask wearing on public transport would be a good thing, although i don't know how effective that is. But given the Japanese do it, I think maybe it is a good thing....(before you all @ me, I'm just speculating that this would be beneficial to those who are more vulnerable)

Yeah thank you I was actually going to add that one in. It's not intentional often. I remember getting sick as fuck in this grim call centre where there were a hundred of us all crammed in like sardines, zero hours contracts, penalised for being sick. All travelled there on crowded public transport. Broken Aircon. It was just germs everywhere all the time.

Earlier in the thread you called those who have to go to work selfish.

My work, a school, have told us that unless we are feeling really ill we have to be in.

You say that, but equally I can't afford to be off sick and potentially lose my job if I get covid again.
My health and my job matters less in society to those of healthy/non-disabled people it seems.
And as soon as I lose my job I'll be told to get in work and stop claiming disability benefits.

We can't win.

Not everyone has an office job and can work from home. My partner is a retail manager and has to work in the store, he also doesn’t get paid for being sick.

I think just out of decency people should adapt, same when they have a cold. Masks, stay at home if you can, be mindful of fresh air and handwashing etc. but people are more selfish now post pandemic than before so I hold out very little hope.

But pp isn’t expecting you to care about their family?
Of course people should try to be mindful of others, but what do you want them to do if their employer expects them to come in?
Most people won’t be willing to compromise their family’s financial stability, especially not in the current economic climate.

Who even has tests now, my dr didn’t even mention Covid as a possibility when I went last month, 4 weeks on and I’m still not 100% better and my symptoms match that of this new strain. My dr simply said hot drinks, paracetamol and prescribed antibiotics for the secondary tonsillitis