Are people still isolating?

[LikeSilentRaindrops]

Been Googling like mad but everything seems so subjective online 😫

DH has felt awful all week and tested yesterday - positive. I’ve not been feeling great and symptoms have properly kicked in today - sore throat, cough, photosensitivity, fever - negative.

I have an incredibly important week at work coming up, including time-sensitive meetings that can’t be rescheduled. Obviously if I feel like I do today, I won’t be doing them, but if the symptoms settle, should I go? Tell anyone?

Nope, you treat it as you would any other cold/virus. Carry on as normal unless you feel unwell yourself and phone in sick to work if you need to.

Thanks @StylishM - do you alert people? I’m still thinking of the 2020/21 days when announcing it made you an instant leper for at least 7 days 😆

I would continue testing (i didn't test positive until at least day 2 of quite bad covid). Then I would let people know if you're still symptomatic a day or two beforehand - you don't know what people's situations are, so they can make their own decisions.

People are still getting quite badly ill with it, my friend's life is utterly gone to pot due to long covid. I don't think anyone will thank you for bringing it in to the workplace, whether it's actual covid or not (it probably is )

No, unless you're a medical consultant or similar! Would you announce you had a cold/your husband had the flu?

Does your work have a policy on attending or not with COVID? Or ask a manager for guidance?

Yes I would re the flu if it was possible that they had uncompromised family.

I was ‘told off’ for not mentioning it (I wasn’t in the day I tested because I only work 3 days). Not allowed back until I test negative.

We do have some vulnerable students though.

This is my thinking - I just don’t know who might be CV or have vulnerable family and would hate to inadvertently pass it on.

No policy, unfortunately. We wfh a lot so it ordinarily wouldn’t make a difference, but this week I have 2 in-person pitches. SUCH bad timing!

If you went into a work meeting and gave half the staff covid, I don't think you'd be the most popular person in the office. I would speak to your manager and get advice from them.

At my company if you test positive with Covid you stay away until you are negative.

I'd be really pissed off if some selfish person came in knowing they were positive and infected rest of office - it's not a cold.

There is nothing more irritating than a colleague who “bravely” struggles in to the office when infectious. Particularly when we now have Teams as an acceptable substitute for physical presence.

I am a carer for my clinically extremely vulnerable mum , but most of my work contacts don’t know this. You probably have colleagues in a similar situation, or who may have weakened immune systems themselves but who don’t want to tell you their medical info.

This covid variant is very nasty. If you’re likely to infect others, please don’t go into the office. Just join those important meetings on Teams and explain why to your manager.

@xyz111 @BotterMon this is what my gut says as well. Equally, though, if the test keeps showing negative, would you still say I should isolate?

I agree with this and I definitely wouldn’t try to be brave in an ordinary week (would just wfh / Teams); it’s just these client meetings that I’ve literally been planning for the last 6 weeks and will really struggle without me there 😫 I could honestly cry with the timing of this. I’m still hoping this isn’t actually COVID and is just a really bad cold…

I'm struggling with 'might be a leper' above risking other people's health and livelihoods.

A lot of work places don’t say this. Many say you need to come to work if you feel well enough. Not everyone who works with covid are ‘selfish’ - many have to.

Christ - No wonder its spreading again !

Your sick - Stay home

I’m not sure if we have an official policy, but tbh it’s definitely the implicit policy - there would be eyebrows raised if I didn’t prioritise these meetings. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, but it is the reality.

My thinking is it can't hurt to make people aware. If they aren't bothered then you've lost nothing, and if it does matter enough for them to change their plans then it's good you've told them.

Timing isn't your fault! Perhaps if a colleague of your DH had isolated, you wouldn't be in this position! (Not assigning blame but pointing out how actions can help others!)

Keep testing every day. If you get a positive OR you feel unwell, don’t go in and join the meetings by Teams instead. It’s great that we can do things online these days.

I am currently ill with covid and have been in bed for 3 days, unable to eat much and no sign of getting much better. It’s a really nasty strain and you don’t know people’s circumstances. Even if they are ‘healthy’ they may end up missing out on important family events, holidays, they could be pregnant, or carers or live alone and would really struggle to look after themselves.

work is never as important as ‘actual life’

news.northwestern.edu/stories/2023/09/covid-patients-exhale-up-to-1000-copies-of-virus-per-minute-during-first-eight-days-of-symptoms/

I am currently in bed with covid .I had it before the vaccines were rolled out and I am much more sick now.
This current strain is not good.
I think it would be bad form to go to work without informing people of their risk.

Well, you are ill now because someone, somewhere, carried on despite being infectious - possibly they didn't know, possibly they had no choice, but equally possibly they just went along with the "well what would you do if it was a normal cold?" argument.

So you could use that argument too if you want to, or you could do what you probably wish they had done.

Unfortunately it is far far more likely to be covid than anything else, regardless of your negative tests, given your partner is testing positive.

If anyone is grumpy about you being on Teams or whatever, then you could point out to them what might happen to your project a week after these important meetings, if some of the other attendees have by then had to go off sick themselves. Spreading an illness more widely through a workforce (even if it isn't covid) isn't usually great for productivity.

No, mainly because I don’t test anymore so I wouldn’t know if it were covid or something else. If I’m too unwell to do something or go to work I stay at home, but otherwise I just get on with whatever I’m supposed to be doing, same as any illness.

This is an important point.

It's not just the few days of someone having covid, it's the effect on the wider workplace as it goes round (cases on the rise, this variant seems to make many people too unwell to work for several days). And the rising burden of long covid on the workforce.

It's a balance, but doing what you can to foster safer working (ie remotely via teams, even if that makes a planned F2F meeting a hybrid) is likely to be good for your organisation.

People probably still will get covid of course, but perhaps "only" once or twice a year, rather than than three or more times.