Coworker's coffee drink gives me daily headaches!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would ask hr to move you to accommodate your medical condition. Get doctor note beforehand. All that officialityou might sway hr to do it.

Joke, right?

[Anonymous]

If they don't move you, tell officemate you're getting headaches from smells due to pregnancy. Buy her Starbucks via instant coffee. It smells good I know cheap coffee stinks horribly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would ask hr to move you to accommodate your medical condition. Get doctor note beforehand. All that officialityou might sway hr to do it.

Joke, right?

No. Being pregnant is a medical condition.

[Anonymous]

Headaches are a medical condition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would ask hr to move you to accommodate your medical condition. Get doctor note beforehand. All that officialityou might sway hr to do it.

Joke, right?

No. Being pregnant is a medical condition.

Except that there are way easier ways to handle this (like talking to coworker) without getting HR involved

[Anonymous]

Having a medical condition (headache, pregnancy, whatever) that requires some kind of accommodation isn't carte blanche to dictate what specific accommodation you get.

OP going to HR demanding that she or the coworker be moved right off the bat before doing any work to resolve the issue herself and if that fails going to HR to see what they believe a reasonable accommodation would be is incredibly unprofessional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having a medical condition (headache, pregnancy, whatever) that requires some kind of accommodation isn't carte blanche to dictate what specific accommodation you get.

OP going to HR demanding that she or the coworker be moved right off the bat before doing any work to resolve the issue herself and if that fails going to HR to see what they believe a reasonable accommodation would be is incredibly unprofessional.

Thank you. I have been in HR and have been pregnant. Don't immediately involve HR unless you are able to resolve it yourself. No one wants to become known as "that" person in the office but it happens a lot. I had a colleague who was pregnant the same time I was. She came to HR at least a dozen times to ask for "accommodations" for things we could not accommodate for. Can you fire someone for being pregnant or taking maternity leave? No. But can you do damage by being unprofessional during those times and it comes back to bite you long after you are no longer protected? Yes.

[Anonymous]

Step 1. Talk to coworker. May never have to get beyond that
Step 2. Get insulated mug for coffee. This may solve it
Step 3. Talk to coworker again. This time be more insistent that the coffee is causing such bad headaches you are unable to work. Kindly ask again that she do something about the coffee or you might have to see if HR can move your desk
Step 4. Talk to HR/your doctor

Chances are if you talk to coworker in a nice way in private (putting all the blame on you and being pregnant, not for her "gross" coffee drink that she drinks all day long because she's addicted) you will likely not get past Step 1. If however you come across a a drama queen, bitchy, and complaning pregnant lady, you might piss off coworker enough to not want to cooperate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a medical condition (headache, pregnancy, whatever) that requires some kind of accommodation isn't carte blanche to dictate what specific accommodation you get.

OP going to HR demanding that she or the coworker be moved right off the bat before doing any work to resolve the issue herself and if that fails going to HR to see what they believe a reasonable accommodation would be is incredibly unprofessional.

Thank you. I have been in HR and have been pregnant. Don't immediately involve HR unless you are able to resolve it yourself. No one wants to become known as "that" person in the office but it happens a lot. I had a colleague who was pregnant the same time I was. She came to HR at least a dozen times to ask for "accommodations" for things we could not accommodate for. Can you fire someone for being pregnant or taking maternity leave? No. But can you do damage by being unprofessional during those times and it comes back to bite you long after you are no longer protected? Yes.

People love to forget about that "reasonable" qualifier that goes before "accommodation" - you can't dictate the solution to your company, you can go to them with the problem and in the best case jointly decide what will be done. HR should almost never be your first stop, though (with obvious exceptions for harassment, medical privacy concerns, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a medical condition (headache, pregnancy, whatever) that requires some kind of accommodation isn't carte blanche to dictate what specific accommodation you get.

OP going to HR demanding that she or the coworker be moved right off the bat before doing any work to resolve the issue herself and if that fails going to HR to see what they believe a reasonable accommodation would be is incredibly unprofessional.

Thank you. I have been in HR and have been pregnant. Don't immediately involve HR unless you are able to resolve it yourself. No one wants to become known as "that" person in the office but it happens a lot. I had a colleague who was pregnant the same time I was. She came to HR at least a dozen times to ask for "accommodations" for things we could not accommodate for. Can you fire someone for being pregnant or taking maternity leave? No. But can you do damage by being unprofessional during those times and it comes back to bite you long after you are no longer protected? Yes.

People love to forget about that "reasonable" qualifier that goes before "accommodation" - you can't dictate the solution to your company, you can go to them with the problem and in the best case jointly decide what will be done. HR should almost never be your first stop, though (with obvious exceptions for harassment, medical privacy concerns, etc).

When my friend at work was pregnant she was tired and didn't feel like she could put in the full 8 hours. She had no medical complications and I tried to tell her that all of us who have been pregnant have gone through that exhaustion phase. She still went to HR to see if her days could be shortened. We cannot work from home due to the nature of our job. HR set her up with more opportunities to take breaks and more times to sit (we don't sit a lot in our job either) and she was insistent that what they were doing was illegal. Thankfullly she realized how foolish she was later on.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I think you all are putting words in my mouth. I'm not going to HR. This coffee drink gave me headaches before I was pregnant too, but back then I could take a few Alleve daily and get through it. I can only take Tylenol now and it doesn't work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I think you all are putting words in my mouth. I'm not going to HR. This coffee drink gave me headaches before I was pregnant too, but back then I could take a few Alleve daily and get through it. I can only take Tylenol now and it doesn't work.

So now you have gotten good advice from people on here. Have you talked to her yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I think you all are putting words in my mouth. I'm not going to HR. This coffee drink gave me headaches before I was pregnant too, but back then I could take a few Alleve daily and get through it. I can only take Tylenol now and it doesn't work.

So now you have gotten good advice from people on here. Have you talked to her yet?

I will obviously. We can't have coffee makers at work anymore though, so this was her solution. I seriously wonder what's in it that has such a bad chemical smell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I think you all are putting words in my mouth. I'm not going to HR. This coffee drink gave me headaches before I was pregnant too, but back then I could take a few Alleve daily and get through it. I can only take Tylenol now and it doesn't work.

So now you have gotten good advice from people on here. Have you talked to her yet?

I will obviously. We can't have coffee makers at work anymore though, so this was her solution. I seriously wonder what's in it that has such a bad chemical smell.

No idea. I have a super sniffer even when I'm not pregnant and my MIL uses something similar and the smell has never bothered me.

[Anonymous]

Who else remembers these commercials? Good times.

We Bet You Forgot About The General Foods International Coffee Commercials
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/22/international-coffee-commercial-general-foods-videos_n_4481433.html