Stay home people!! Sickness at work vent

[~disneydiva~]

Ok...I work in a office with about 12 people....There are only 2 of us who have not been sneezing, coughing, and getting into the medicine cabinet! Everyone else is walking around sick acting like its not a big deal!!! I just got transfered to this office and it is germ infested! They have had people with mono, swine flu, and strep throat! Seriously!
Vent Over. Thank you.

 

[legalsea]

Ok...I work in a office with about 12 people....There are only 2 of us who have not been sneezing, coughing, and getting into the medicine cabinet! Everyone else is walking around sick acting like its not a big deal!!! I just got transfered to this office and it is germ infested! They have had people with mono, swine flu, and strep throat! Seriously!
Vent Over. Thank you.

Good reason to vent!

In my office (with some 40 people) we have signs up everywhere begging people to stay home if they have any symptoms. So far, people have been very compliant (which has surprised me to no end).

 

[2girlsmom]

I'm going to have to disagree, and confess to being one of those coughers at my office. Honestly, I would be HAPPY to stay home, but I have had this cough going on 4 WEEKS, I am asthmatic, so coughs stay with me a while. I feel fine, just have a cough. But I am out of sick leave for the year and will get FIRED if I take unpaid sick leave.

 

[Hillbeans]

I'm going to have to disagree, and confess to being one of those coughers at my office. Honestly, I would be HAPPY to stay home, but I have had this cough going on 4 WEEKS, I am asthmatic, so coughs stay with me a while. I feel fine, just have a cough. But I am out of sick leave for the year and will get FIRED if I take unpaid sick leave.

My 8 yo son has had the same dry cough for about 4 weeks now as well. I know it's annoying but it just has to work itself out of his system. Now if he had strep or an infection/fever obviously i'd keep him home.

 

[Angelhalo]

I've been sick for two weeks. I stayed out the first 3 days but that finished up all the sick time I have. I'm past the point of being contagious now. I just have a stuffy nose and a persistent cough.

I can't afford to stay home unpaid and my boss can't afford to have me gone. I stay in my own little desk area but honestly there's nothing I can do about it at this point. I'm taking medicine, using tissues, covering my mouth when I cough. There's not much else I can do. If people don't want to be near me, then they can stay away from me. I don't want to be here sick any more than anyone else wants me here sick but there's not much choice. People need to also remember this when they are angry with their sick coworkers. Sometimes we just have no choice but to come in.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Venting here is fine, but the OP and others might also want to check (a) their respective employers sick/out policies and (b) contagion periods and conditions. Many illnesses are most contagious/spreadable before the person has symptoms. Mono requires direct contact. Swine flu symptoms come on relatively quickly - within a few hours - and knock one for a loop, making it unlikely the person would be able to work.

 

[Robinrs]

I have sinus and allergies and neither are contagious. I'd be home everyday in spring if I abided by this....

I prefer to feel for the struggle the sick person is going through than what it can do to me. I guess that's why I rarely catch anything.

 

[~disneydiva~]

Well it would be different if the people I work with were staying in there own office, but they're not. Walking around, talking about how sick they are, how they didn't get any sleep last night.
I understand that people only have a certain amount of sick time.
I'm not angry at anyone...it was just a vent.

 

[mikehn]

Some of us just dont have the luxury of staying home when we're sick. You would not want the person who cuts your social security check to call in sick now would you? If Iran was pointing missiles at us, Obama better not be calling in sick.

 

[mrsstats]

with only 5 sick days a year, 1 illness can wipe that out. What do you do after that? We can really afford not to have money coming in???

 

[daisyduck123]

I work in a room with 24 others, many who are sick, coughing, and just feel lousy. They don't get to stay home because they're parents SEND THEM HERE anyway!

I'm a 1st grade public school teacher.

(and I just try very hard not to touch their desks, pencils, etc)

 

[happygirl]

Some simply can't afford to stay home.

 

[aprilgail2]

I would be more than happy to stay home every time I am sick except that my employer does not seem to feel that I should LOL...we get "points" every time we take off and once you hit a certain number of points you go on trial...first is a warning and after that you start getting hit with a week off no pay, then 2 weeks off no pay, then 60 days off no pay, then 6 months off no pay and then termination....so its not always as easy as "just stay home"

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

A lot of my coworkers use their sick time to stay home... when their kids are sick. They run out of sick time, especially if they have more than one, or one who is very prone to being sick.

 

[eduk8r26]

Define "sick". I have a cold--no temperature, feel fine, just a drippy nose and itchy throat that makes me cough. I'm not going to stay home because of that. To me, sick is a temperature over 100 and feeling lousy.

 

[mrodgers]

I've been working with a loud mouth opinionated is never wrong older lady (reminds me so much of my mother...) for about 8 years now. I have terrible allergies and the extreme amount of dust at work (plastics manufacturer) and the seasonal stuff kills me with sneezing.

Every day I get, "Are you sick!" in a demanding overbearing voice. I just want to scream at her, "For the 400,000th ****** time, I have allergies!"

 

[kaytieeldr]

Oh. "Yes, I'm sick... of being asked this every single darned time sneeze!" would probably be rude, huh?