Corona - Irresponsible employer or standard practice?

Forum_Name

We have an employee who has fallen unwell and has been advised by the doctor to self isolate. Without giving too much detail away this employee is out on the road a lot so while does come on site daily, the employee is not based on site. 

Kick start the day with management saying "they (the government) can't just come and shut the gates", as in they can't just tell us we need to stop trading for a while.

The news on this employee was (apparently) supposed to be hush-hush. I only found out through someone who works with office management as they believed i had a right to know. I was told to keep quiet. I was told the employer was really not happy the employee would be taking time off as it's going to cost them quite a lot of work.

Having known the employer for many years, i would wager a serious amount on it not being so much from the angle of trying to prevent mass hysteria but much more likely to be from the angle of "well if they find out then they'll all want time off". This is very much an old school farmer mentality with comments i've seen made that would make your blood boil as to how someone could have such little regard for another persons health/well being.

The employee seemed to do their entire days work, even though I was told in the morning they'd been advised to self isolate. 
I personally find it irresponsible as anyone in our department could've gone to this employee for a chat, to borrow a fag, touch whatever they're touching, so on & so forth. Many a comment made while this whole Coronavirus thing has been going on - it's only a sniffle, just get on with it (like i said, old school farmer mentality. Either that or silly comments to try and get laughs / be macho). 

Now the important thing is that this is not a confirmed case. It's just someone who has suddenly felt unwell and must be showing the symptoms and as a play-safe has been advised to self isolate, so nothing to get too carried away with yet.
I just think the way the employer handled it is (not surprising, but...) shocking. 

I haven't really been paying too much attention to this whole thing to be honest. Is there a procedure the employer is supposed to follow? Do you work in a place where someone has had to self-isolate and was it all hush-hush where you work or was everything out in the open and was treated seriously? Am i in the wrong to think this case should've been brought to everyone's attention as a matter of keeping everyone's health a priority? 

nicechap

Forum_Name said:

We have an employee who has fallen unwell and has been advised by the doctor to self isolate. Without giving too much detail away this employee is out on the road a lot so while does come on site daily, the employee is not based on site. 

Kick start the day with management saying "they (the government) can't just come and shut the gates", as in they can't just tell us we need to stop trading for a while.

The news on this employee was (apparently) supposed to be hush-hush. I only found out through someone who works with office management as they believed i had a right to know. I was told to keep quiet. I was told the employer was really not happy the employee would be taking time off as it's going to cost them quite a lot of work.

Having known the employer for many years, i would wager a serious amount on it not being so much from the angle of trying to prevent mass hysteria but much more likely to be from the angle of "well if they find out then they'll all want time off". This is very much an old school farmer mentality with comments i've seen made that would make your blood boil as to how someone could have such little regard for another persons health/well being.

The employee seemed to do their entire days work, even though I was told in the morning they'd been advised to self isolate. 
I personally find it irresponsible as anyone in our department could've gone to this employee for a chat, to borrow a fag, touch whatever they're touching, so on & so forth. Many a comment made while this whole Coronavirus thing has been going on - it's only a sniffle, just get on with it (like i said, old school farmer mentality. Either that or silly comments to try and get laughs / be macho). 

Now the important thing is that this is not a confirmed case. It's just someone who has suddenly felt unwell and must be showing the symptoms and as a play-safe has been advised to self isolate, so nothing to get too carried away with yet.
I just think the way the employer handled it is (not surprising, but...) shocking. 

I haven't really been paying too much attention to this whole thing to be honest. Is there a procedure the employer is supposed to follow? Do you work in a place where someone has had to self-isolate and was it all hush-hush where you work or was everything out in the open and was treated seriously? Am i in the wrong to think this case should've been brought to everyone's attention as a matter of keeping everyone's health a priority? 

I think you've answered your own question.

Unless someone has a notifiable disease (e.g. measles) it sounds like a case of a selfish colleague rather than an irresponsible employer.  Do you know which of your colleagues has TB or HIV? Both are much more deadly than whatever you might be worrying about.

keithdc

nicechap said:

Forum_Name said:

We have an employee who has fallen unwell and has been advised by the doctor to self isolate. Without giving too much detail away this employee is out on the road a lot so while does come on site daily, the employee is not based on site. 

Kick start the day with management saying "they (the government) can't just come and shut the gates", as in they can't just tell us we need to stop trading for a while.

The news on this employee was (apparently) supposed to be hush-hush. I only found out through someone who works with office management as they believed i had a right to know. I was told to keep quiet. I was told the employer was really not happy the employee would be taking time off as it's going to cost them quite a lot of work.

Having known the employer for many years, i would wager a serious amount on it not being so much from the angle of trying to prevent mass hysteria but much more likely to be from the angle of "well if they find out then they'll all want time off". This is very much an old school farmer mentality with comments i've seen made that would make your blood boil as to how someone could have such little regard for another persons health/well being.

The employee seemed to do their entire days work, even though I was told in the morning they'd been advised to self isolate. 
I personally find it irresponsible as anyone in our department could've gone to this employee for a chat, to borrow a fag, touch whatever they're touching, so on & so forth. Many a comment made while this whole Coronavirus thing has been going on - it's only a sniffle, just get on with it (like i said, old school farmer mentality. Either that or silly comments to try and get laughs / be macho). 

Now the important thing is that this is not a confirmed case. It's just someone who has suddenly felt unwell and must be showing the symptoms and as a play-safe has been advised to self isolate, so nothing to get too carried away with yet.
I just think the way the employer handled it is (not surprising, but...) shocking. 

I haven't really been paying too much attention to this whole thing to be honest. Is there a procedure the employer is supposed to follow? Do you work in a place where someone has had to self-isolate and was it all hush-hush where you work or was everything out in the open and was treated seriously? Am i in the wrong to think this case should've been brought to everyone's attention as a matter of keeping everyone's health a priority? 

I think you've answered your own question.

Unless someone has a notifiable disease (e.g. measles) it sounds like a case of a selfish colleague rather than an irresponsible employer.  Do you know which of your colleagues has TB or HIV? Both are much more deadly than whatever you might be worrying about.

HIV- deadly??? Think you may have forgotten that it is 2020, not 1980. It is incredible rare to die from HIV-related illness these days!

asajj

The employer should be open and honest. Everyone has a right to feel safe in the work environment.

JCS1

Old School Farmer mentality?  Can you expand on this, as the daughter of a farmer I'm not sure if to be offended or not!  

comeandgo

JCS1 said:

Old School Farmer mentality?  Can you expand on this, as the daughter of a farmer I'm not sure if to be offended or not!  

I join you there JCS1.  I've never heard of that saying but it does not sound complimentary.  

nicechap

keithdc said:

HIV- deadly??? Think you may have forgotten that it is 2020, not 1980. It is incredible rare to die from HIV-related illness these days!

I suspect its you that is out of date.

From Information is Beautiful website https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/covid-19-coronavirus-infographic-datapack/

74jax

I self isolated for 2 days whilst someone I had contact with was tested.  No one at work was informed what I was doing.
The result was negative, I returned back to work.
No one knew why I was off.  Had it been positive, I'd have been tested and those in contact with me would be told.
I agree, in the case of CV you need to read up on what you do and when. Not speculate or cause a scare. 

Forum_Name

keithdc said:

TB or HIV? Both are much more deadly than whatever you might be worrying about.

But then where do you stop with that?
Y is more deadly than X so we wont do anything about X, we'll just forget about it. Someone now has Z and Z is more deadly than Y so Y is now irrelevant and we'll just totally forget about it because Z is the highest case right now.

asajj said:

The employer should be open and honest. Everyone has a right to feel safe in the work environment.

I never thought anyone at our place would self isolate. It's now happened. I would've expected that if it happened (which it obviously now has) then the employer would use a bit of no/low risk common sense and by that i mean inform everyone that Joe Bloggs is going to self isolate, stress that that does not mean they have the virus but that they've been advised to self isolate so on that note, when they come back to base, everyone steers well clear, allows this person to go to their car & leave, nobody approaches the individual (as in my view yes it's probably just a normal bug they have but it's not worth the risk for the sake of informing and steering clear).

JCS1 said:

Old School Farmer mentality?  Can you expand on this, as the daughter of a farmer I'm not sure if to be offended or not!  

Well you'll probably be offended by the sounds of it.
From personal experience, and this clearly does not include your father as i've never met the guy, all the farmers i've ever dealt with (and i've dealt with many in my line of work actually) have a keep working until you drop dead attitude. Have the flu? No such thing, it's just a runny nose, 'man up and carry on'. Leg is broken? So what, you have another, carry on. Cut yourself open? Don't be soft. Who needs stitches or any wound cleaning out. Infection is nonsense, just put an old rag around it and it'll be ok.

I've dealt with many old farmers over the years. This viewpoint is frustrating but seems to be one that they all share, or at least the ones i've dealt with. Your father may well be different but since it seems to be a common theme amongst old farmers in my experience then that's why i said old school farmer mentality, because that's the mentality i've seen ... in my experience. I can't comment on your father just like nobody else can comment on those i've encountered to form the basis of my opinion. 

suki1964

Forum_Name said:

We have an employee who has fallen unwell and has been advised by the doctor to self isolate. Without giving too much detail away this employee is out on the road a lot so while does come on site daily, the employee is not based on site. 

Kick start the day with management saying "they (the government) can't just come and shut the gates", as in they can't just tell us we need to stop trading for a while.

The news on this employee was (apparently) supposed to be hush-hush. I only found out through someone who works with office management as they believed i had a right to know. I was told to keep quiet. I was told the employer was really not happy the employee would be taking time off as it's going to cost them quite a lot of work.

Having known the employer for many years, i would wager a serious amount on it not being so much from the angle of trying to prevent mass hysteria but much more likely to be from the angle of "well if they find out then they'll all want time off". This is very much an old school farmer mentality with comments i've seen made that would make your blood boil as to how someone could have such little regard for another persons health/well being.

The employee seemed to do their entire days work, even though I was told in the morning they'd been advised to self isolate. 
I personally find it irresponsible as anyone in our department could've gone to this employee for a chat, to borrow a fag, touch whatever they're touching, so on & so forth. Many a comment made while this whole Coronavirus thing has been going on - it's only a sniffle, just get on with it (like i said, old school farmer mentality. Either that or silly comments to try and get laughs / be macho). 

Now the important thing is that this is not a confirmed case. It's just someone who has suddenly felt unwell and must be showing the symptoms and as a play-safe has been advised to self isolate, so nothing to get too carried away with yet.
I just think the way the employer handled it is (not surprising, but...) shocking. 

I haven't really been paying too much attention to this whole thing to be honest. Is there a procedure the employer is supposed to follow? Do you work in a place where someone has had to self-isolate and was it all hush-hush where you work or was everything out in the open and was treated seriously? Am i in the wrong to think this case should've been brought to everyone's attention as a matter of keeping everyone's health a priority? 

Ive. got a hacking cough

According to the government yesterday I should self isolate for 7 days

Ive not left the country, know anybody that has left the country and returned, nor been. in contact with any of the 10 confirmed cases in this county. 

I have a cough, maybe a bit of the winter sniffles, yet the government,in their cost cutting exercise, are saying to isolate, yet are not testing

I indeed read the NHS site and latest reccomendations which said "self isolate, don't bother ringing us

As for it being out in the open, have you not heard of confidentiality ?

If I were poorly and it was spread about work, I would be seriously peed off

Forum_Name

suki1964 said:

If I were poorly and it was spread about work, I would be seriously peed off

I agree 100% with you. If you were poorly and your infection was spread about the workplace causing me to get what you have, i'd be seriously peed off too. Peed off you didn't stop at home as per advice so you didn't infect me, peed off you wanted it kept from me so you're basically saying F everyone elses health. 

I'm in total agreement with you about being peed off.