Colleague has come into work sick…

[theycallmeuser]

My colleague came in to work yesterday absolutely full of cold, coughing and sneezing.

She’s again come in today. She says she’s done lateral flows and they are negative!!

Would I be unreasonable to go home?!

@vixeyann

There's a difference between coming in with a sniffle compared to the full blown viral illness with cough this person obviously has. That is selfish.

It is selfish!! She’s been on lemsips all day!

It’s been absolutely awful at work today. I’ve felt so on edge 😣

Could she realistically work from home. If so, I think she and possibly your employer are being unrealistic to have her come in. If the alternative is being off sick (or she has to be present to do her job) then I think a negative LFT is sufficient, though a PCR would be preferable!

If I were her manager I would have sent her home until she had a negative PCR test.

Perhaps you or your manager could ask your occ health department to clarify what should happen in future in this situation.

So I had covid 3 weeks ago. I had cold symptoms. I also had 2 negative lateral flow tests. Went for a PCR test - on the same day as 1 of my negative lat flow tests - it came back positive.

I did NOT have a cough
I did NOT have a fever
I did lose my sense of taste and smell but that was about 4 days after my positive test

I had bad cold symptoms, fatigue and headaches.

They should go for a PCR

Exactly the same with me pip : negative LFT and positive PCR on the same day.

I had nausea and that impending sense of doom, plus what some on here would call a not continuous cough.

I've got covid. I didn't get a cough until day 4, now on day 8 and it's gone. DH and kids have all followed the same pattern.

The 'three symptoms' are bollocks. None of us had a fever either, although we did all lose taste and smell but but at the beginning g either.

We got PCR tests because DH did an LFT for work that was positive.

Oh and we are both double vaccinated.

YANBU

Colleague needs a PCR plus the days of people spreading their grotty colds around should be over.

@Lovelydovey

Could she realistically work from home. If so, I think she and possibly your employer are being unrealistic to have her come in. If the alternative is being off sick (or she has to be present to do her job) then I think a negative LFT is sufficient, though a PCR would be preferable!

@Lovelydovey

Nope. Think mine is the only company where no one has worked from home throughout the whole pandemic!

Does your employer pay full pay if you are off sick OP? If you only get SSP then I'm not surprised people are still working when they are ill. The bills still need paying.

I think it's selfish not to do a pcr. She has symptoms, she could rule it out by doing the more accurate test and put her colleagues minds at rest. Also she has no way of knowing who is vulnerable and who is going home to vulnerable people - it shouldn't be up to the OP to take action and go home.

We've now been told not to come into work if we're ill regardless of what we're ill with. Not just covid but if you have a cold or anything, we've been told to stay at home and work from home if we aren't too ill. Very pleased with that policy.

She needs to go home and do a PCR. LFT's aren't effective when someone had symptoms.
I still wear my mask in the office. I'm not putting my health in other people's hands.

Full of cold like that, she’s surely got a temperature too.

There are loads of coughs and colds going around atm.

Are your company requesting a PCR?

If it's positive there is still no need to isolate, as per guidelines, of Monday.

So what are your company requesting that she does?

The Delta variant has "cold" like symptoms.

covid.joinzoe.com/post/new-top-5-covid-symptoms

This isn’t the first thread I’ve read about people having negative LFT but positive PCR. I would not be happy to have that colleague working near me.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4324058-LFTS-are-pretty-much-useless-with-Delta-arent-they

Coughing once an hour is definitely a cough and needs a test. The ‘continuous’ description is to differentiate between coughing as a one off which we all probably do all the time. When we had covid in our house no one coughed till they were sick or coughed all the time the symptoms were just like any regular virus.

@Oblomov21

There are loads of coughs and colds going around atm.

Are your company requesting a PCR?

If it's positive there is still no need to isolate, as per guidelines, of Monday.

So what are your company requesting that she does?

@Oblomov21

Nope, my company aren’t requesting her to have a PCR.

They said that she doesn’t have the main symptoms to need a PcR.

She told HR she’s “full of cold”

They were satisfied with a negative LFT.

I said to my colleague today, don’t you think you should go for a PCR.
She said she didn’t think she needed to, her son was full of cold and coughing and he’s passed it to her.

@nancy75

I had really hoped that all this would have put an end to people turning up to work ill & germ spreading. Op can you work from home?

My work has a very strict sickness policy, I have little option but to go into work when ill.

My DH has a bad cough and cold at the moment. He took 2 LF tests, then a PCR test. He's gone on to need antibiotics. The doctor says he has plain old bronchitis.

It’s really stressing me out. I don’t want to go to work myself tomorrow!