Going to Work Sick

[ginlyn32]

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[mumma to KMC]

I guess my question is: Do you think it's rude to work when you are obviously sick and contagious?? I do not want to get sick or take it home to my family!

I don't like to get sick in general and well if I worked with her and caught what she had, I would be pretty upset. I mean if she came down with whatever and went home, that would be fine and I caught it, that is okay. However for her to come to the office day after day with the illness is just plain wrong. Many people have compromised immune systems and to catch a cold would be devastating to them.  I am pregnant and while catching a cold isn't the end of the world for me, I know that since I can't take anything to help the symptoms, it is a royal pain in the behind.

I too work in a place where they claim they don't want you to come in if you are sick, but if you call in, the little gossip hounds talk about you behind your back. A few weeks ago I had a stomach bug, don't know what it was but it wasn't pretty. I wasn't going to work where I have to help patients while trying not to puke on them. I called in to work and the lady I called in to told me that she would call me back to let me know if they needed me. Excuse me?

[Reika]

I was in your friend's position once and it seriously sucked especially since the ventilation system wasn't cleaned regularly so the dust played havok with my allergies. Unfortunately there wasn't anything better jobwise in the area so was stuck for a long time and that maybe the situation your friend is in.

Yes, it is rude to go in sick, but given a choice between coming in sick or staying home sick but getting fired is rough.

[Rei-chan]

I think that sometimes we are put into situations where we have no choice.  I have worked a few different jobs (and these are restaurants no less) where calling in was not just frowned upon, but you could lose your job over it.  One might say "Well, some people abuse the policy" but I am not referring to those people, but to people that worked 4 and 5 doubles a week and never called in.  At one place I worked when I was 18, I was told I had to bring a doctor's note, which was fine, but it was a Saturday and my insurance at the time did not cover Primecare (walk in clinic).  When I informed my boss of this, she insisted that I be treated at the ER (for a bad head cold, I might add, not an emergency) and pay $75 dollars for a note.  For a head cold.  When I balked at this, I was told, do it or no job.  The same boss later did this to a girl that ended up having strep throat.  At the time though, the job was too important to lose and being a student, I didn't have many options.

Anyway, I digress.  My point is that some people are in a situation that leaves them no choice, and they may not feel that they have the option to get out of that job before finding another one.  In that case, it is the employer who is rude for putting all the workers in that situation, not the person who must come in, sick or not.

[Ad_Astra]

My point is that some people are in a situation that leaves them no choice, and they may not feel that they have the option to get out of that job before finding another one.  In that case, it is the employer who is rude for putting all the workers in that situation, not the person who must come in, sick or not.

I agree.
My job does the same thing as your friend's--it's discouraged to call off for any reason (it's not unheard of for someone to call in and the managment to say "you need to come in or you'll be taken off the schedule permanantly") and if you just don't show up you're immediately fired.
Mind you this is a RESTAURANT--we aren't allowed to wear nailpolish or earrings because it might get in a customer's food, but if you're coughing all of the place and very much contagious it's fine that you're there and touching everything and potentially infecting not only coworkers but customers  . Because of this I will NEVER eat food there that I don't completely make myself...gross .

Why do I stay? Because it pays really well and there aren't that many entry-level "McJobs" that pay $10 an hour that work around a student's schedule...

[blarg314]

I think it's definitely unhealthy, and if someone has paid sick leave it does qualify as rude.

If someone doesn't have paid sick leave, then it is often economic necessity rather than etiquette that wins out.  If the choice is to cart your cold into work, or to not get paid (particularly around Christmas) or to lose your job, then I would drag myself into work too.  I've also had times leading up to a deadline where missing work would have a serious professional impact, and writing grant proposals isn't something you can get someone to cover for you.

The people that annoy me are the ones who brag about how sick they are but still came to work, or think they are so indespensible that they can't miss a day.

I would recommend face masks, though, for people who are sick, particularly in food related fields.  Here they are very common - standard for people working in food preparation, and also commonly used when you have a cold and need to go out, so you don't cough or breathe on people on the subway.

[Venus193]

Tragically, this is all part and parcel of The Culture of Overwork.

Where I work now people are not pressured to come in if they are sick.  They know that passing that sickness on to one's colleagues is worse than someone else having to do your work for the day (or you falling a day behind).

[ButterflieRJ]

A coworker and I were talking about this kind of thing.

She and I both agree that companies should allow employees to work from home when they are that sick.  Why?  Because if you think about it, their chances of infecting others lessens, thus less of the workforce is out sick and production can remain higher.

Of course, that's something that just won't happen in most workplaces (the work from home thing).  Oh well...

[Twik]

Argh. I'm the worst hypocrit about this. I growl all winter about being exposed to people with colds. Then when I get sick, I go around complaining "I can't take time off - I'm indispensible!" 

In my (probably invalid) defence, I have scheduled training sessions, and since we're a small company we don't have a setup for someone else to sub for us at short notice if one of us gets sick. If we can't go, we lose the contract. However, I have to admit that I am a chief among sinners when it comes to exposing others to germs.

[Betsy]

Slightly OT but also slightly relevent. I just heard a story on the radio this morning that a restraunt worker with the flu exposed over 300 customers in one day and now the restraunt is facing sanctions for not sending said worker home when his condition became apparent and before infecting the rest of the customers.

Something tells me this is justice.

[ShadesOfGrey]

I think it depends on if you are contagious or not. 

Flu=contagious, go  home

cold=contagious but controllable (stay home during wost tissue-using and coughing phase) and some people have a cold for much longer than a day

sinus infection=not contagious (but you probaby feel bad enough to go home!)

[fklwmn]

I was talking to my best friend in Indiana last night and she was basicly bragging how she went to work and she was so sick that she could hardly talk. She said she kept loosing her voice.

I told her that if I was that sick, I would have called in. Well, I understand that she is a single mom and all, and she can't really afford to be off work. That being said, I would have a problem being forced to work with someone who was that sick. I said if I had a fever and was contagious, I would stay home. She said if she stayed home she would have gotten wrote up. She works for the company that I did my college internship for.

I guess my question is: Do you think it's rude to work when you are obviously sick and contagious?? I do not want to get sick or take it home to my family!

PS: she does not get sick days and would get yelled at for taking a vacation day.

Ginger

PS #2: I have told her to get out of that toxic enviornment, but she won't do it. SHe prefers to be worked like a slave and payed like one too!

many many MANY companies have absence policies that make it nearly impossible to take off sick - at least for parents. I can get 3 occurrences a YEAR. the 4th one is a verbal warning, the 5th one is a write up, and the 6th one is termination, no questions asked. ANY absence that is not preapproved (at least 24 hours in advance) is an occurrence. No matter how sick I am or whether or not I bring a doctor's note. I could be hospitalized unexpectedly, and I would get an occurrence.

You could call it a toxic work environment, but my experience is that it is pretty typical of a corporate work environment. Right now I work at a HUGE Insurance Company. I get plenty of PTO (paid time off) every year - 26 days - but I still can't call in sick b/c regardless whether or not  I have time available to take, it will be a mark against me. My last job was at HUGE Cable Company. Same deal - plenty of time off (even so called short-notice days!) but the same occurrence policy. The job before that was at another HUGE company. Same policy.

I have 2 kids at home. If they can't go to school, someone needs to be able to stay home with them. My parents do help out with that, but they both work too so 99% of the time the person who needs to stay home with them is me.

So I go to work sick. I go to work with a fever. I go to work contagious. A couple of years ago I went to work with a severe case of Strep Throat b/c I couldn't take the occurrence. Even worse, it was december so all the available time off was being taken and I could not get them to approve my time off so that I could stay home after the first day. That Strep migrated from Strep to the flu to bronchitis without a break in between. If I can drag myself out of bed long enough to get dressed, then I go to work.

Trust me, I do not work sick because I want to. I work sick b/c corporate policy makes it impossible for me to stay home. Sounds like your friend is in the same situation. I don't think it's rude to work sick if your job depends on it.  I DO think it's rude for companies to institute policies that necesitate employees working sick. Imagine the change in the number of people feeling like they HAVE to work sick if they would simply say that a doctor's note stating that you were too sick to work would prevent an occurrence. It would still punish the people calling out who are not sick, but would give those who are really ill the option to stay home without fear of reprisal. Yet NONE of the companies I have worked in with an occurrence policy made that provision.

[freakyfemme]

Wow, employers like that are awful.  One thing I really respect about my parents is the fact that they treat their assistants really well.  They never bark orders at them, they always say good morning, please, thank you, etc., and often stop to make small talk rather than just going straight to what they want.  Also, when the existing office building was first being built, my dad insisted that it be designed in such a way so that everyone working there would have access to a window.  As for the sick thing, there's a very strict policy at my parents' law firm that actively FORBIDS people from coming to work when they're sick.  In fact, both of my parents have been known to drive people home if they show up to work sick, or get sick while they're at work, and aren't in a condition to drive themselves.  I think that all employers should model themselves after my parents. 

[Venus193]

When in the purple blazes did this start?  Why, in the face of all the evidence that this hurts productivity, do employers still abuse their employees this way?

That restaurant situation needs to be publicized more.  Or perhaps in our litigation-happy culture someone needs to sue a corporation for demanding that contagious people work or be terminated.

Finally, the more companies that do this, the more people who don't work for them will feel obligated to work when they're sick out of guilt or paranoia.  Back in 2000 I had bronchitis for 6 weeks... and didn't take a single day off.  I don't do this anymore.

[Lisbeth]

Unfortunately, given that companies limit sick days and many people work at jobs where they are paid by the hour and receive no compensation for time they don't show up, even if they are sick, sometimes people come to work when they are sick.  Also, sometimes the sick person is a high-ranking or otherwise "non-expendable" person who is needed to hold down the fort because no one else at the company has the knowledge or access or whatever to do the work.

I think it's wrong, but there is too much at stake for the sick person to not report to work.

Companies need to rethink their policies.