Sick colleague... advice please...

[applecharlotte]

Hello,

I'd be really grateful if I could have some advice on how to handle this...

I'm 11 weeks pregnant. I work in a small company (7 people) and didn't intend to tell work I was pregnant until around 20 weeks.

A colleague of mine was ill with a virus last year and was out in and out of office for about 9 months. It was like glandular fever (really tires, lost loads of weight etc) but the doctors couldn't actually diagnose it with blood tests. She recovered, all was fine.

Today she has told work she is feeling similar to how she felt last year and is going to take it easy but still work in the office (ie not take calls).

So I'm worried I'm going to get this virus, as I spoke to a nurse last week when I came down with a really heavy cold who explained that during pregnancy the immune system is weakened.

I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid/hormonal, but should I tell my bosses I'm worried about this and insist she works from home or takes sick leave?

I really didn't want to have to tell them so early and I won't be having my 12 weeks scan until the week after next.

What would you do?

Thanks in advance

It's tricky really. You can't insist that she takes sick leave. Do you know if she is contagious?

If I were you I'd probably come clean and tell your boss you're pregnant and about your concerns re: your colleague. If it's anything like my company they will need to carry out a risk assessment over your working conditions and this may well factor. Perhaps you working from home would be a better option?

There's no reason why you would have to tell anyone else either.

I would tell your boss. Whilst you can't insist the other woman works from home, you can insist on working from home yourself if you feel your health is threatened.

Glandular fever/Epstein Barr virus is contagious and can be spread through coughs and sneezes or cutlery/crockery not being washed properly after use.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/Glandular-fever/Pages/Introduction.aspx

At a minimum I'd take hand sanitiser and cleaning wipes into work and wipe down door handles, telephones, toilet handles, etc before touching them - any hard surface she might have touched.

you need to tell work you cannot risk your health and your babys health. You may find that actually your management know more about her illness than she has shared with you so it may well be completely harmless to you and if not you are able to act appropriately.

thanks all for your I've calmed down a little now.

I spoke to my colleague (I actually do a HR/admin/finance role so did a bit of digging) and she said that she wasn't contagious as the doctor said it is likely a relapse from when she had the virus last year and that it was only contagious back then.

Turns out it was glandular fever as she had it confirmed by blood tests at the end of her illness last year.

Reading this has made me calm down:

www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/infections/202881.html

Had a look at a few websites and there doesn't seem to be any risk to pregnancy.

I'm going to take your advice japhrimel and buy some wipes etc for crockery, toilets etc.