ethics of coming to work when you know you are very contagious
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Anonymous
| It's jacked up but if you have mouths to feed go in. Now the pregnant hefer who came in sick while I was pregnant BUT she used her vacay time for Disney... I was not wishing her well. Bword. |
Anonymous
| Totally get that folks are upset. Big problem here is that some bosses simply don't care. They want folks at work, not in bed regardless of the conditions. |
Anonymous
Conjunctivitis is pink eye? I think the health department in your state might say he has to go home. |
Anonymous
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I understand coming into work when you are coughing/have a cold, because those symptoms can linger several days and it's not practical to think you aren't out in the world, but pink eye is insane. I've had it twice and within a few hours of getting drops the symptoms subside considerably. At least wait until then....can't imagine coming into work when it is full on flaring up.
That said, I wouldn't worry too much about it getting it. It is very contagious, but it's hit or miss. It's been in my daughter's daycare room 3x in the past 6 months and she hasn't gotten it, and she didn't get it when I got it last year either, nor did my husband or other daughter. |
Anonymous
| I've worked with pink eye. I don't touch my eyes though and wash my hands frequently. And I certainly don't have a nasty eye boogie tissue that I leave laying around. |
Anonymous
Actually, from that link: But determining how long pink eye is contagious and how long you or your child should stay home can be a little tricky. Generally speaking, it should be safe for you to return to work or for your child to return to school or to a day care center if the obvious symptoms of pink eye no longer are present — usually in three to seven days. This means that eyes should be clear of yellowish discharge and matter on the eyelashes as well as the corners of the eyes. Also, the pink color in the white of the eye should be cleared up. Contagious Pink Eye Treatments Topical antibiotic ointments or eye drops work to clear up infection in pink eye only if the source is bacterial. In this case, you need up to 24 hours for the eye drops or ointment to start working and for the infected person to no longer be contagious. If the source of the pink eye is viral, then the infection will need to run its course. In this case, you can relieve symptoms with lubricating eye drops to soothe irritation. Applying warm or cool compresses (whichever feels better) to the outside eyelids, with eyes shut, also can help relieve pink eye symptoms. So - basically, this guy told people it was viral and just had to run its course. THEN he said it was contagious. His eyes are red like the devil and weeping and he is absolutely in the yellow crust phase. It's very easily visible. So the drops, if he has them, for his "viral" infection won't do a thing about the contagious nature. AND, everything else I've seen (CDC webMD etc) say that you're contagious as long as you have symptoms. On top of that, he only started taking the drops this afternoon according to him. So even if he was wrong about it being viral, he's full of shit about not being contagious. |
Anonymous
OP here. I agree with this but this guy is salaried with really generous vacation (we all are). |
Anonymous
Right - pink eye is potentially contagious for up to two weeks, and I agree it would be impractical for him to wait it out that long. But yeah - basically he said he'd been to a doc and wasn't, then I mean, it was INSANE the things he was touching, touching his eye, shaking people's hands, leaving the eye wipes around, I mean if you need to wipe an infection out of your eyes every 4 minutes you should not be putting that out there. It's just wrong. Thank you for the reassurance. Of course, my eyes are itchy. I know I'm just imagining it though as I don't think you catch it in one day. (right?) |
Anonymous
Op he is a DICK. Are you a fed? Why haven't you told him? If not name the contractor and we will tell him to take his ass home. |
Anonymous
| Can I play devil's advocate here? I recently had the flu and was out for four days (plus a weekend, so it had been 6 days since I got the flu). I can assure you there was nowhere else in the world where I would rather have been but my bed - truly - but my supervisor made it clear that I HAD to be at work on that Monday because we had a big presentation that had been planned for months. No if's and's or but's about it- if I was not on my death bed I had to be there. And of course, my assistant got the flu a week later and I felt horrible because I am sure I gave it to her. But really what could I do?? Get fired over this? |
Anonymous
OP here. PP, that is a tough one and it sounds like you were put in a terrible situation and of course, your colleague was, also. I think it's hard to say what the "right" thing to do is when you don't really feel like there is a choice so we start rationalizing. For instance, maybe you would have put your foot down if you knew your colleague was the mom of a new baby for instance. However, you were talking about 6 days of having the flu, by which time, i don't know, is it getting better / less contagious? Anyway - I do understand that some people feel irreplaceable (and some bosses feel their employees are irreplaceable as yours did, and forced you to come in) and although I'd put my foot down if at all possible, that's just me, and really I'm in a work environment (and so is this person, who is at work with pinkeye) where we are not pressured to work while ill. That's just the thing - there's no justification here. Anyway, I get that you felt like you had no choice and that's unfair. I can tell you that this is not the situation here. I know his direct reports and our company has a really family / life / employee friendly culture. And, people who work with him more directly told me why he stayed - it was an ego thing. I actually was like "man, what has he got going on that is that important?" AND, they said, nothing. That they're actually have more downtime than usual right now. He just thinks everyone is overreacting because "it's just pink eye." No, we're not feds. Large trade association. |
Anonymous
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Do you have an occ health unit in your building that could help provide info on proper protocol? He's an idiot, so I'd involve hr or his boss in order to get him to stay home. I wouldnt worry about anyone getting in trouble. Not getting sick is more important.
From his contradictory stories, he's a liar, but not all types of conjunctivitis are pinkeye or communicable, so bear in mind that if hr are idiots, they might buy his lies. |
Anonymous
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Where I work they give awards to people who save the most sick days, aka, reward people coming in sick. What drives me nuts, is the people who come in, obviously very sick, cough, sneeze and touch everything, say they can't do anything because they feel bad, hang out just long enough to call it a day, and then go home. Why come in at all?
I know a few people who are reasonable in most aspects of life, but seem to think if they say "I am not contagious" it makes it true. |
Anonymous
| My boss came to work when he knew he was coming down with the flu. Fever, chills, and runny nose. He is a dentist. Of course now 3/4 of his staff is too sick to work, and God knows how many patients he infected. |
Anonymous
Read that many companies and bosses say they want sick employees to stay home but in reality expect them to be at work. And in this economy, employees are concerned about taking any time off from work and are not taking vacation time either. |