Coming into work when ill?

I had a flu about two weeks ago but still went in for my three night shifts. That said, at that point it felt more like a cold/throat infection and I was on my own in the office so nobody else was there. I've been there less than 6 months so I don't get sick pay yet anyway. Fortunately by the time it turned into proper flu I was on my rest days because I'd have never made it in to work in that state anyway.
 
I think the first problem is that illness is a scale between being totally healthy and dead, and most sick pay systems are binary (your off on sick leave or your in work or in a coffin). The second probably is where you are on the scale between totally healthy and dead is that apart from being dead everyone has a different view on what that scale looks like. The problem with not coming in because you might get other sick is a real no goer, in the sense that for a lot of minor illnesses you are contagious before you're symptoms develop so should we just always be off work?
 
ultralaser said:
I think the first problem is that illness is a scale between being totally healthy and dead, and most sick pay systems are binary (your off on sick leave or your in work or in a coffin). The second probably is where you are on the scale between totally healthy and dead is that apart from being dead everyone has a different view on what that scale looks like. The problem with not coming in because you might get other sick is a real no goer, in the sense that for a lot of minor illnesses you are contagious before you're symptoms develop so should we just always be off work?
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Then you have some bosses (idiots) who absolutely refuse to believe you can be so ill for just 24 hours you can't come into work and that only long term illnesses are that bad :s
 
As much as i understand why this isn't practical. I really wish anyone with a stinking cold in an office environment stayed at home.

Section of 38 people and 4 managers... Friday 1 person has really bad cold snotting and coughing everywhere..... today about 30 people now have it and im there listening to 30 people cough and snot their guts up while trying to avoid it myself... not impressed
 
Fortunately I'm allowed to work from home if I'm ill but not so ill that I can't work. No sense in spreading it to my colleagues.
 
MrRockliffe said:
You're assuming that the virus only spreads once the infected signs begin. You've probably already given it to co workers when you start showing signs of having a cold.

May as well just go in.
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Generally you are contagious from about 1 day before you start showing symptoms. However, colds are mostly spread through particles as you cough and sneeze, so you are definitely more contagious sitting in an office coughing your guts up.

Incidentally I started getting I'll last night and went to bed early. Will still go in today though as I'm the boss and loads to do.
 
I don't understand all these 'oh people are just being heroic, a martyr' type comments. Get a grip, it's a cold...

I spoke to some of the staff at one of the Nurseries about this yesterday and they just looked at me blankly when I said about not coming in to work because of a cold. Nothing to do with martyrdom, it's just they work with children and the kids are ill all the time and they bring it in and spread it to the staff!

So a cold is the least of the issues, they are constantly exposed to bugs, including things like D&V, Foot and mouth (that one always makes me chuckle :p ), Chicken pox etc
 
Ever since I got sinusitis a few years back there is always a good chance a cold ends up leaving me feeling like someone is trying to inflate a football in my head. Not pleasant.

But unfortunately it's the "screw everyone else" attitude that means nobody cares about general hygiene and germ control. We've got alcohol hand wash at work and some just walk by them. People come in with raging bugs coughing and blowing.

I'd like more home working in these cases, in this day and age its easy to get calls and network access remotely. If you need to go out cover nose and mouth, use hand sanitisation etc.
 
The problems is that in many work places there is a slack work culture amongst certain groups of people, those that think sick pay is part of their annual holiday allowance. This makes employers get the hump and then bring in draconian policies like managed sickness / back to work interviews if you've been off more than "x" number of days in a rolling year etc. which ruins it for everyone else.

That said, most people that have projects to complete/deliver taking time off for a puny cold probably doesn't even pass their mind. Lets face it theres a whole range of how sick you can be with colds, from just having the runny nose and cough to being in bed shivering and then having a fever etc. The latter you should stay at home as you're not going to be at all productive, the former is just taking the ****.
 
As a business owner its a difficult one to juggle.. you will always get those that like to play the system and those that would drag themselves in even if they were on deaths door.. and any half decent manager knows who these people are.. Just be sensible about it.. have a cough or a sniffle that you can take a couple of pain killers and operate mostly OK then come in.. got the flu / are generally dying then stay at home..
 
Here in NZ, we are entitled to 5 sick days per annum, and they roll over!

I think that would just encourage people to have sick days.
 
We've got people here who take 3 days off at the first sign of a sniff, but also a director who comes in when he's so ill he really shouldn't.

My whole office has had whatever is going round at the moment and I've been one of the last to catch it. Not looking promising for it to clear by Christmas :(
 
The work culture is quite different to what it was a few years ago, when dropping a sickie was seen as an easy way of getting a few days extra leave.

Most companies now operate fairly strict attendance management policies which will weed out those who are swinging the lead, so to speak.

Where it gets a bit complex is where safety critical work is concerned. Not going to make effective decisions running a temperature of 102F or coughing and spluttering everywhere with the irony being you can't take an effective remedy such as Night Nurse or Benylin as the ingredients will fail a "for cause" medscreen which will cost you your job/pension. In these circumstances not unusual to see people to turn in for work but either go home half way through the shift or get sent home because the manager realizes you are unfit for work.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Gotta martyr yourself on the altar of capitalism.
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Better to do that then throw another body on the funeral pyre of socialism (which ironically in action would not care much for sick leave either.... There's the tractor production quota etc after all)

Of course it's also largely nonsense as well....

It's not exactly hard to construct a 'capitalist' argument for people staying off work with sickness if them coming into work would spread the disease and reduce overall productivity in a unit.

Much like other comments anyone with children would quickly find it impossible to manage if a snuffly nose meant either a parent (and likely child) having to stay of work/ nursery.

Even the 'common cold' is infectious from a few days before your symptoms appear until all of the symptoms are gone. Most people will be infectious for around two weeks.

So staying of work won't necessarily stop the virus spreading and its not feasible for employees to take two weeks of work for something as trivial to most adults as a common cold.
 
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Worst case of manning up I ever saw was a work collegue some years ago. He had flu, I mean proper flu but was "too important to not come in". The manager of the department was all happy with him, showing loyalty etc.
The following week most of us didn't turn up as he had spread it to most of the office (poor airflow etc), he wasn't quite so much the hero then.

Worst case for me personally again some years back. Had a french boss, who was terrible with planning etc. I was off as I had a migraine, a genuine one, which I was suffering a bit from them at that time as same said boss was useless and basically making projects loads harder and more stressful due to his incompetence, I do get stress related migraines, now I know what I hadn't at the time, stress was my main trigger basically. He called me, and i stupidly answered the phone, he had decided to plan a meeting for lunchtime after knowing I was off ill, I has assumed he needed some urgent advice on a project, but it was a completely pointless meeting that could have happened the next day or something. He was reallllly unhappy, and demanded I updated him every 30 minutes if I could make it in. I called him once then said i'm not coming in. He reluctantly cancelled this hyper urgent meeting, and eventually held it about 3 weeks later, after which everyone was like "what was the point in that meeting, he could have just sent an email to that effect"
 
Blackjack Davy said:
People come in because they think it makes them look or feel heroic whereas infact they're just a bloody nuisance!
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No, people come in because they have bills/rent/mortgages to pay and families to feed.

If you have so much spare cash floating around that you can afford to take 2 weeks off on ssp every time you have a minor cold then feel free to pay those "nuisances" so they too can afford to take the time off :)

(Oh and make sure you find them another job too after they get fired for breaching their employer's sickness/attendance policy).

You're directing your ire at the wrong people, you can't blame your co-workers for dragging themselves in when they shouldn't if the company operates in a way which penalises them for not doing so
 
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as mentioned, company i work for has set attendance policies, whereby you can X number of sick days off before an initial warning, then after that can get a 2nd warning with a 3rd instance being a dismissal.

so it works where if people can get in they do, because they might well be that sick that can't get in and the policy stuffs them up.

but as usual the people that take the **** out of the system manage to skate by.
 
My boss is always fairly lax on this. Once I came in with a cold and was told to go home and not to come back when better. I use the same ethos with my own team as if one gets ill we all get it, providing we have enough guys in to cover the work.

As a result nobody takes the **** and have a happier work force.
 
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