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How do you know what her leave balances were at or what the workload she was returning to looked like? You still seem to be making some big assumptions. If you accept this is common behavior, and you agree this particular coworker is nice, then have you considered that you might be the one with the problem? |
...she didn't need a leave balance. According to op, she could've worked from home. It doesn't matter if her leave balance was 0. |
| So many of you using "But muh leave!" as excuses for shitty behavior. |
Does she have a home office set up with equipment? Did she bring her laptop home in advance? Did she have any meetings or tasks that benefited from being done in person? OP doesn't seem to be objective here. She clearly has an axe to grind on this issue. |
Who does regular telework and doesn't have an office setup? And come on, didn't bring her laptop home? Who doesn't bring their laptop home every night? I was doing this even pre-covid, when I was in office daily, rather than hybrid. |
Ok, so you are racist and sexist and hate white women. Just say that. Maybe she is treated differently than you are and your manager isn't as flexible with her as she is with you. What's wrong with her going to disney? Jealous? |
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I'm curious what the divide is between "Please don't come to work actively ill" and "I CAN'T CALL OUT SICK FOR EVERY SNIFFLE EVEN THOUGH I WORK A WHITE COLLAR 9-5" crowds. I used to think it was political, with Republicans going into work sick (for no reason other than conservatives seemed to have no issue gathering during covid lol) and Democrats staying home. But this board is, I imagine very liberal, and you all seem adamant that it's totally fine to go to work with a cold.
Also, my conservative BIL gets pissed whenever someone comes into work sick and my very liberal coworkers frequently come to work sick. I'm a moderate who doesn't go to work sick. Go figure. |
I don't think the OP ever said this coworker regularly teleworks. I think you're making an assumption there. The ability to telework doesn't mean that she does. I always bring my laptop with me, too, but I certainly have plenty of coworkers who don't. Admin/support staff, in particular, rarely do unless they're planning to telework. Even among professional staff, a surprising number don't have desks and external monitors at home. I guess we're arguably not allowed to attach personally owned equipment, and work won't pay for equipment at home, but no one bats an eye when you say you do it. |
OP here. I AM a white woman lol. My manager is very flexible with me; I worked from home when I was sick last month. |
OP here. I think I did say somewhere in the beginning of the thread that we regularly telework. We are required to be in office two days a week and telework the other three. This coworker works from home three days a week, and I have had meetings with her from home, so I can validate she has a set-up for working from home. Look, I know I'm the villain because I'm OP but the fact of the matter is, she can and does work from home several days a week and could've taken advantage of that today but did not. |
I don't think there's a strong political angle to it. I suspect the strongest predictor of acceptance would be anyone with kids- particularly young kid- and especially if they're a primary caregiver of those kids. The nature of the job probably matters a lot, too. People that feel personal satisfaction from work- and who want to work- are going to be more accepting that someone who looks for excuses to take off. Health anxiety is probably another big one. People terrified of catching minor illnesses like colds are obviously going to be less accepting. Some of these things offset each other- e.g., higher rates of health anxiety among women, but also a greater likelihood of being the primary caregiver of children. |
Well, one, genuinely being sick isn't an "excuse" to take time off. But two, this is the entire point of the thread. The coworker had the ability to work from home but for some reason came in. No time off needed! And to your point about being "terrified" of catching a cold...it's not health anxiety to not want to be exposed to a cold. I accept that I'm exposed to the cold and flu every day on, say, the metro. I would prefer to not be sitting across from someone who knowingly came into work sick to expose the rest of us. Obviously things happen. I believe the flu is most contagious the day before symptoms start, so someone could be forgiven for coming in, spreading the flu around, and then waking up the next day only to realize, oh, shit, I have the flu. |
That just suggests there's something about what she had to do that made her want to go to the office. I doubt you know every single task she had to do over the course of the day. I'm not sure how joining calls with her would reveal the suitability of the workspace to you. The camera is usually pointed away from the desk, not towards it, so how would you know what she has in terms of monitors and a keyboard/mouse? When Covid hit, the very night we were sent home for "two weeks" I went online and bought myself an motorized sit/stand desk, a refurbed Aeron chair, a 27" monitor, a webcam, a microphone, and headset. And I'm glad I did, because a couple weeks later those things were all out-of-stock. But I knew there was no real plan for returning, since covid was obviously still going to just as much of a threat. But most people didn't do that, and I've been surprised by the number of people who just seem to accept they're going to be less productive at home because of a lack of proper equipment. Some try to hold off on certain tasks until they're in the office (think: data-entry-like tasks that really benefit from two monitors). |
It's not normal to be this upset/concerned at the thought of potentially catching a cold during the winter. Do you have kids? What did you do when they were sick? Avoid them or comfort them? |
Obviously, comforting one's sick children is different from preferring sick coworkers telework. Ideally the sick coworkers telework so *I* don't get sick and then spread it to my family. Do you really think someone who is irked by a coworker coming in sick is the same as avoiding a sick child? Lol. |