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Covid

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Original poster

NHS and socialising

73 replies

Cococola · 17/12/2021 14:50

Interested to know people's thoughts

I work in the NHS (triple jabbed, daily LFTs). We have been advised to be very careful with socialising and have known others getting told they shouldn't be going for drinks with any colleagues. I completely understand the rationale but I feel like with 2 years of complete graft they seem to have forgotten were humans with family and lives too.

Just feeling deflated as I want to see some friends that I haven't seen since pre pandemic without feeling guilty about it.

Prepared to be flamed.

OP posts:

AgathaMystery · 17/12/2021 14:51

I know. Any hope of actually going for a pint is dashed.

dotparker · 17/12/2021 14:52

I'm sorry for you, op. Dh is ex NHS and the pressure has been on you all for so long. Frankly if I were you I'd be living my life but just not talking about it and being careful what you share on social media.

GreenLunchBox · 17/12/2021 14:53

They don't own you. Do your own risk assessment

DreamingofBrie · 17/12/2021 14:54

, OP.

I wouldn't judge you at all. As you say, you're humans with families too.

itwasntaparty · 17/12/2021 14:55

Fuck that. What you do in your own time is up to you. My firm has cancelled all Christmas events and 'recommends' colleagues don't meet in groups larger than six. They can't dictate / meet your mates for a beer after work if you want to.

LegoPandemic · 17/12/2021 14:55

HCP too but not NHS and I would say ignore. Even if you want to go to a nightclub on your time off that’s up to you!

MintJulia · 17/12/2021 14:56

I'd just ask them to do LFTs, and then crack on with meeting up.

DreamingofGinoclock · 17/12/2021 15:11

You deserve your downtime / to see friends as much as (if not more than) the rest of us!

We are avoiding parties etc before Christmas ...but that's more to do with not having to isolate over Christmas and miss out on seeing family ...i.e personal choice ...I would be annoyed if my work tried to enforce it though, and don't begrudge those that have plans

Go out and enjoy yourself and just don't let work know... If you do catch the dreaded C word it could be from anywhere !

Original poster

Cococola · 17/12/2021 15:12

I know some colleagues that have got into trouble for meeting up, even though they have followed all the legal rules

OP posts:

KohlaParasaurus · 17/12/2021 15:13

I feel for you. Also working in a health care setting and disappointed to see the prospects of socialising over Christmas and New Year melting away AGAIN despite being fully jabbed. I won't think less well of anyone for factoring in their own mental wellbeing when balancing whether or not to attend a social occasion.

AgathaMystery · 17/12/2021 15:13

I am definitely not going to anything.

User5329806 · 17/12/2021 15:16

If you meet up with people who don't work with you how will they ever know, it would be more difficult meeting up with work colleagues though

VikingOnTheFridge · 17/12/2021 15:17

@Cococola

Interested to know people's thoughts

Just feeling deflated as I want to see some friends that I haven't seen since pre pandemic without feeling guilty about it.

Prepared to be flamed.

If your employer wants a say on what you do in your time outside work they can pay you for it. Do whatever you think best.

jassixa · 17/12/2021 15:18

@Cococola

I know some colleagues that have got into trouble for meeting up, even though they have followed all the legal rules

What? On what basis?

Just ignore it, they don’t own you 24/7!

NorthSouthcatlady · 17/12/2021 15:18

Where l work they haven’t banned us -probably because they have the sense to know they can’t. I have plans to go out tonight and l will be going

vera99 · 17/12/2021 15:19

If there was any damn justice in the world Johnson and his shower of incompetent cunts would be giving you a grand Xmas bonus and asking you to go the extra mile. Instead, he's bung huge amounts to his rich mates and almost ruined the country. Not for me to judge or judge your personal decisions that only you can make but my heartfelt thanks for all the sacrifices you have made so far.

VikingOnTheFridge · 17/12/2021 15:19

Those colleagues need to be involving their unions.

User5329806 · 17/12/2021 15:21

It sounds like the friends you are meeting don't work with you OP so work won't say anything as you can't be banned from meeting them.

GloriaPunniford · 17/12/2021 15:22

I’m a police officer and we’ve been advised/strongly urged not to meet with colleagues on Xmas parties so that we don’t wipe out a whole department.

They cannot stop us meeting but most have obliged with the request.

OnceuponaRainbow18 · 17/12/2021 15:23

I’m not NHS staff but school staff- we’ve also been told this by the head, we weren’t allowed Christmas drinks, had to gather socially distanced outdoor for a goodbye speech, and told to do LFT before we see elderly people this Christmas.

AnyFucker · 17/12/2021 15:24

I am NHS and I have made my own decisions re. socialising outside of work time

Outside of work time being the key phrase here. Your employers do not own you. They have no right to tell you what to do in your own time. They can “recommend” but not enforce or even coerce with judgemental backlash

Do what you think is right. Or even a “bit wrong” with informed decision-making. That is all you can do.

Reallybadidea · 17/12/2021 15:25

Non-clinical managers who've sat behind their desks for the past 18 months while we were killing ourselves (in some cases literally) on covid wards, can ftfo if they think they can dictate what we do in our free time.

Siameasy · 17/12/2021 15:26

They haven’t a leg to stand on, these are guidelines. You deserve to go out and enjoy yourself. I am “emergency services” and am on my 3rd Xmas party tonight, another tomorrow.

Stormsy · 17/12/2021 15:39

None of their business. Personally I'm going to be careful, but I wouldn't judge anyone who wants to go out and meet friends etc, not after the two years we've just had.

This is was our local news today though

A staff Christmas party has led to several coronavirus cases among Suffolk's ambulance workers in the last week, putting more pressure on the service.
Dozens of staff from the East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) celebrated at Trinity Park outside Ipswich on Thursday December 9.

The next day managers sent a message to staff saying someone had tested positive and anyone who attended the party should take daily lateral flow tests and upload the results to the Trust’s computer system for the next week.
According to one source the numbers testing positive after the party has been increasing all week, but EEAST would not say exactly how many were off with Covid.
“It could potentially cause a massive effect on staffing levels and pressures,” the source said, who knew of around eight cases.

yikesanotherbooboo · 17/12/2021 15:48

I think that managers should leave it to employees to be responsible.
We are already struggling to cover the workload with sickness/ isolating levels being high. I think we owe it to our colleagues not to make things worse during what we expect to be a rough couple of months.I wouldn't at this point attend a party or go to a jammed pub. I would feel dreadful if that led to me passing covid to a patient or being off work for ten days and dropping my colleagues further in it.I would be prepared to visit family or perhaps to see one family for a meal. I would hope that even if people have slightly different boundaries to me most of us would feel similarly and be restrained. I don't think managers should have to get involved.

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