Money Moral Dilemma: Should you risk spreading the lurgy to colleagues?

hangarman

I have done, and probably will continue to do. Granted, I am not a freelance worker and (thankfully) not out of my depth in debt, but if you need the money to keep the debt collectors off your back for another week/month then needs-must.

Also.... if your colleagues catch it and take time off sick, there could be the possibility of a bit of extra cash through overtime


Like my mother used to say.... Share and share alike! :cool:

luxor4t

elsien wrote: »

If you really do have flu, you don't stand a hope in hell of getting out of bed to get to work anyway, however much you need the money.

I agree: too often people claim to have 'flu' but really just have a nasty, albeit unsocial cold. As my gran said 'flu kills' (she had friends who died in the 1920s outbreak).

Back to the topic: I am expected to attend work (sick days logged etc) so would go in and hope to be sent home.

geri1965_2

Taffybiker wrote: »

I haven't had a day off sick in six years or more. Fortunately, I don't suffer very much from colds and flu - a friend once mentioned it is probably because I am a biker and have thus acclimatized more to cold than non bikers. There may be some truth in this.

You don't get colds from being cold, they're caused by a virus. I suspect the reason you don't get them is because you don't come into contact with as many people as often due to the fact that you don't use public transport.

I cycle or walk to work and I am rarely ill - the only times I've caught colds recently are when I've been taking the bus!

I agree with people who say that if you really had flu you wouldn't be able to make it to work regardless of how much you needed the money. If it's just a cold, I'd go in as I would feel lilke a skiver for staying at home. What I tend to do if I feel under the weather is go in late and leave early - that way it doesn't get put down as a day off sick.

NafUk

geri1965 wrote: »

You don't get colds from being cold, they're caused by a virus. I suspect the reason you don't get them is because you don't come into contact with as many people as often due to the fact that you don't use public transport.

I cycle or walk to work and I am rarely ill - the only times I've caught colds recently are when I've been taking the bus!

I agree with people who say that if you really had flu you wouldn't be able to make it to work regardless of how much you needed the money. If it's just a cold, I'd go in as I would feel lilke a skiver for staying at home. What I tend to do if I feel under the weather is go in late and leave early - that way it doesn't get put down as a day off sick.

You don't get colds from being cold but it does increase your susceptibility to infection. Research from Bristol Uni (I think).

gaily

Q. When is the flu not the flu ?

A. Most of the time - you don't go sick from work for 1 day with the flu - more like 1 week, possibley 2. (I think the other term for it is Man flu)

janineo

It seems I'm in the minority here - we have an understanding boss who will send us home if we struggle in with a bad cold and look like death warmed over. (I agree about the flu - you wouldn't be able to get out of bed).
We don't have sick days monitored over much - probably if it was abused you would get a meeting about it, but otherwise it's understood people do get ill sometimes.

Yes, I could probably struggle in, and I have done so in the past. But I have felt awful, and looking at the PC screen with a cold gives me a headache, I can't concentrate enough and I end up re-doing all the work anyway when I'm feeling better.

So I would stay home a day or 2, let my body fight off the infection/virus/bacteria, and come back to work ready to work at full capacity.

It's not going to help if you end up re-doing work done badly whilst ill.

allsinginganddancing

If employees take time off for any reason at my OH place of work they have to be interviewed by a panel 2 members of management and a Union rep......and that's even for 1 day off! I realise this helps sort out the skivers from the workers but arn't they the ones who fine it sooooo easy to lie to your face anyway......

And yes he has almost crawled to work with the Flu rather than face the interrogation process ....

Primrose

I can think of so many times when I went into work feeling really unwell, mainly because there wasn't anybody to do my job and I didn't want to let my colleagues down. Few businesses have the capacity to cover for absent colleagues these days and most people know that even if they have only one day off sick, there will be a double workload for them the next day. So unless I was totally and physically incapacitated, I'd go into work, struggle through and try and crawl into bed immediately I got home.

cannyscot_2

I would stay off now if I felt so bad I was unlikley to do productive work. I have always struggled in in the past. I am self employed and did this last year as it was expected by my employers. I ended up really ill and it took months to recover from. I was actually sitting in work sweating which with what was the flu -i ended up in bed unable to move for 8 days. By this time I physically was unable to go but had I taken 2 days off in the beginning I would probably have been fine. It was motivated by moeny-ie dont get paid if not there but also by the culture in my profession which is to never be off.

I now hate people on flights/trains with colds etc -I am paranoid about getting their bugs and move carriages seats. I felt ill last week after aflight due to snifffling /sneezing-don't covertheir mouths folks.

SandC

Luckily staff at our place get full pay if they have time off sick. Unfortunately they are very lax at monitoring (all changing hopefully with new Head of HR in place). Most people have excellent attendance. A few have absolutely dire attendance that wasn't nipped in the bud when it should have been.

I honestly think that different people have different perceptions of what constitutes being too unwell to go into work. When you get paid for it and the work gets done by someone else, well it's easy to tell yourself you're under the weather and shouldn't be in.

I haven't had a sick day in over 5 years because I haven't been sick. I've had colds but have my own office and can contain it quite well. The last time I felt really rough I was involved in some training which had I not attended would have meant I could not do a new part of my job for at least a year, when the training would come around again.

Public transport doesn't help with the spread of bugs and often a heavy cold does render you pretty useless from a work point of view. I do feel for those who don't have sympathetic employers or who lose money. Strangely though, you will find self employed people rarely have sick days. Wonder if tht would be the same with some people I know who would not get paid if they didn't go in and would have a bit catch up with work?

If you do have a cold, my advice aside from lemsip and a box of tissues by your desk is WASH YOUR HANDS. A LOT.

I think my immune system might be quite good - this could be from not being compulsive about cleanliness and bleaching everything in the home to within an inch of its life. I also do not take heed of best before and use by dates - if it smells okay and it looks okay it will get eaten. I use as little chemical cleaners at home as poss and I think that all helps with regards to stomach bugs etc.