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

hezza86

I like most others would drag myself to work because of the consiquences of being off. I work for the health service of all people and you'd think they understand that people get sick but no, the stress of the job causes alot of people to be off and the current moral in my work place is awful, making the situation worse. Iv been on there attendance management myself, if im off sick once more im getting taking to a stage 2 formal interview and then 1 more after that within 6 months and its discaplinary for me.
And before people are thinking im one of the skiver types i asure you im not, i always go in and be sent home but because im then off the next day theres the sickness record started. So like others my work place is full of people coughing and sneezing and looking like crap. But nothing we can do we will all come in because we may lose our jobs, I currently have a chest infection but will go in this weekend and cough my way through my calls. The only time i ever phoned in sick i had sickness and diarrhea and was preety much called a liar over the phone! what more can i do i couldnt get off the toilet! my whole family had it and i couldn't risk infecting the whole work place. Made me feel better when my mum (who works for the same place) had to go off sick with yip sickness and diarrhoea!
So back to the point id go in i wouldn't want to go but id go.

Aldahbra

My husband was waiting for an opperation on his stomach last year. He was in quite a poor way, health wise, he couldn't exercise and eat probally because of his stomach problems which lead to weight gain and loss of immunity.

The selfish people in the company where he worked turned up for work however ill they were. One even turned up when he would have to spend over 5 hours in the car with my husband.

Each time he had a cold he was more ill than everyone else because of his underlying condition and his operation was postponed.

He has now had his operation and doesn't work for that company any more.

When going to work ill, which I have done when a tempory or hourly employee , consideratation must be given to the state of the other members of staff. If they are fit and healthy generally or if they have underlying conditions.

nej

My wife has used up all her sick days this year - largely as a result of catching bugs from other people in her badly-ventilated and stuffy office.

Today she is ill and would probably have stayed home, but she's had to go in with it, otherwise she won't get paid.

Tiddles12

bennett2kuk wrote: »

Without question, my money is more important than other people's health.

I had this very argument at work last week, came down with a stinker of a cold over the weekend and ended up passing it on to a couple of my workmates.

Unfortunately though my job doesn't pay any sick pay at all. I'm not in debt at all but I certainly wasn't losing any of my wage just because people didn't want to get ill. I even suggested that they buy me a day off. ie club together and give me what I would have earned that day and I would have gone home sick. They declined so I stayed right at work.

You must be a very selfish person

anntics

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.

Well said!

People too often call a heavy cold 'flu. The truth is that anyone with 'flu would be too ill to work. If you take the right precautions, sneeze into a hanky, wash your hands frequently, and avoid unnecessary physical contact, the risks are no greater than just being out and about in the world. I would be far more worried about people making mistakes or putting themselves and others at risk because they are so doped up on cold remedies and painkillers that they cannot think straight.

As the doctor once told me when I was soundly told off for letting my children go to school with a cold - if every child with a cold stayed at home the schools would be empty for a great deal of the time. True for adults in the workplace too, I think.

muffintop

I work freelance and don't get paid sick leave and my colleagues are the same. So, we all struggle in when ill (I have a cold at the moment) unless we literally can't get out of bed. The only plus side is that if I make my colleagues so ill that they can't work, I'll get their work (and likewise if they make me that ill). Swings and roundabouts!

sandramoneysaver

I can understand going in if you don't get paid. But i find it positively irritating when people go in with nasty coughs and colds to share around the office, and they would get paid if they took time off.
1. its anti social
2. they are not looking after themselves and risk making them selves more ill
3. no one is dispensable!

Tarry

As I work in retail, the customers often kindly give me their bugs, thank you customers.

tonycree

it's not selfish staying at work if you have cold/flu symptoms...
it is what you are encouraged to do by your bosses...
so stay at work
infect as many people as you want
and get paid for it,
your boss will imply you're a liar if you're off
you may not get paid
you could be disciplined
etc.
if the whole workforce go down with it
then they may re-evaluate their approach to sickness...
happy sneezing.

Shain

If you can get through the day with over the counter remedies, then you don't have flu. You have a cold. Get your caboose into work, especially if you're self-employed or don't get paid otherwise.

Definition of flu: You're lying on the sofa and there's a £20 note on the floor beside you. Do you pick it up? If you say yes, you've got a cold, not flu! You'll feel rotten but you're OK to work. Try to work a couple of slightly shorter days and you'll feel better a bit faster. If you have flu, go to bed, and stay there until you feel human!

A lot of companies are shooting themselves in the foot by coming down so hard on "slackers" and therefore penalising their whole workforce, ensuring germs spread to virtually everyone and adversely affecting their productivity for weeks when they could have lost a minimal amount of productivity by one person being off for a couple of days. What my mother would have called "a baby/bathwater interface error"... :cool: