Pet peeve...selfish assholes who come to work sick!

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

Is there anyone else here who thinks that people who are fortunate to work for a place that gives sick leave and who don't use it when they're hacking all over the place are selfish twits?

I started to feel kind of crappy Friday night before I went home from work (got this weird feeling in my lungs (wheezy, tight and burning) and my head started to feel congested). The office manager was sick last week, but came in anyway (she had lost her voice, had a sore throat, she said, etc.). This one guy who sits behind me was hacking. I went out for lunch the other day, and I heard a couple of people around me coughing their asses off.

So, this weekend, I'm in bed, feeling like shit..and praying I'm not coming down with bronchitis (which I'm susceptible to). Grrr...

Sorry..have to vent here.

[Coyote_Bandit]

1. Worse yet

are assholes who voluntarily choose to socialize when they are sick. Yeah, I'm still hacked off about the nasty virus I caught in September. Was exposed at lunch by a doctor's wife and kid - who acknowledged at the time that they were running low grade temps and had just started taking a round of meds. They should have known they were contagious. Assholes.

Seriously, feel better. You have my empathy.

[BuelahWitch]

2. I was in a Typhoid Mary Triangle a few weeks ago

Woman to the left of me was hacking and coughing her head off, the man to the right was sick and the woman behind me had strep throat (!!). Lefty would NOT stay home under any circumstances (and yes, she has sick time. She just doesn't use much of it). Finally the boss went up to her one day and ORDERED her to go home. The woman sitting behind me was off for a few days, then came back to work before she was totally well. She ended up having to leave and took the rest of the week off. The man was the only one who took off more than a few days. He was out most of the week of Halloween.

[twenty4blackbirds]

3. ...but have to return home, leaving reception short-staffed

See, if they'd taken the whole day then the manager would have organised a temp. But because they came in "feeling not that bad" and then start to feel the symptoms more later in the morning so that they then had to go back to bed, the manager doesn't have enough time to find a temp and get 'em to start work (what with filling the temp in on the idiosyncracies of a university workplace).

So, I am exposed to sickness _and_ overworked as I have to take over some of the reception duties.

/vent

Thanks. Hope you get better soon.

(edited for more ventilation)

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

4. Thanks all.

:)

[cuke]

5. You have my sympathies

It's my pet peeve too. Well, one of mine :-)

The worst are the ones who brag about how they come to work no matter what. Ugh

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

6. For real. Like, what, do they want a medal or something?

"Oohh...you spread germs...good for you!" As Ren and Stimpy used to say, "EEEEEEEEEEEDIOTS"!

[cuke]

8. I give them my "Are you insane?" look

I once worked with a guy who was a volunteer fireman (a fire captain actually) in his off hours. I understand where he got the attitude, but the others I just want to smack

[cordelia]

7. And, they like to

corner you, get as close as they can to tell you how miserable they feel, spewing their germs and viruses all over you.

[cuke]

9. I don't have that one

thank God. I have a little social phobia, and don't like people getting too close. I think it shows because people tend to not do that more than once

[trotsky]

10. Don't blame them, blame employers.

How many places give sick time anymore? It's all PTO now - you have a finite pool of hours to draw from when you're absent from work, whether it's vacation, your illness, or someone else's. If you're out of PTO, what can you do? Go without pay? Nope, like a "good little worker" you get your ass in and suffer through it. No doubt people abuse this and come in so they don't have to use up any existing PTO but it's not always the case that someone is just selfish.

[havocmom]

14. Some places have generous PTO policy for illness, but people won't stay home when sick.

Some at federal agencies want to rack up LOTS of PTO and use it like extra vacation time rather than stay home when ill and not infect the whole office. It is annoying, and to some of the workers, can be dangerous. Some people get a lot sicker due to various conditions. It is more than just annoying to many when co-workers who COULD stay home WON'T stay home.

For some, such inconsiderate twits can be a real threat. My husband works with a young woman who has some very serious physical disabilities which affect her immunities. Co-workers continually bombarding her with viruses and bacterial disease due to their selfish refusal to use sick time when sick sometimes put her in the hospital to the tune of about ten grand each time.

My husband is susceptible to pneumonia, yet co-workers love to hover around him when they are sick. Then they complain when he gets ill and has to take time off to mend.

Assholes. Sometimes it IS a case of selfish.

I have great sympathy and empathy for those who do not have PTO for illness, but know way too many who get that sick leave and just let it accrue. Since some places pay for leave not used, some people spread disease while coming in sick to earn a little extra 'bonus' pay. They should be punished for such reckless endangerment.

[Rosemary2205]

11. I get 3 sick days a year - a cold lasts 5 or 6 days.

Do the math.


Sorry you are feeling crappy.

[struggle4progress]

12. I had a coworker come in sick on a day when we had a scheduled potluck lunch

She said: I didn't want to stay home cuz I was assigned to serve the food. And she served the food, too: nobody complained.

But I decided I wasn't hungry enough to eat lunch that day

[Der Blaue Engel]

13. I've been penalized for taking my lawfully alloted sick leave before

Some bosses are just assholes. (Not saying that's what's happening here, just that it happens.)

[SoCalDem]

15. My friend was sick last week, and to take a sick day, he has to show that he went to the doctor

and his insurance has a $100 co-pay for urgent care.. You cannot get in to see "your" doctor on the same day, and they say.."go to urgent care", so it cost him a $100 co-pay to stay home from work because he was sick.. and he spent a few hours waiting..on a day when he just felt like staying in bed..

they got you either way..

[Arkansas Granny]

16. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. People who

are sick and contagious should stay home! Not only does coming to work delay their recovery, they will probably not do their job very well either. I realize that not everybody gets paid sick leave (I don't, for one), but coming to work sick and putting your co-workers at risk of catching your illness is very inconsiderate and selfish.

[CatWoman]

17. I developed pinkeye last month, and everyone ran away from me

they MADE me go home.

Which, by the way, was the right thing to do.

[triguy46]

18. That's an obvious problem, but there is a more insidious one:

You can carry the flu bug for 48 hours before being symptomatic, infecting on average 8 others before you feel the least bit sick.

The next pandemic should be real interesting.

[lightningandsnow]

19. Amen to that

There are a bunch of people at my school who come in sick, and I'm like "Dude! You're a high school student, you have unlimited sick days... what the hell are you here for?"

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

21. Good to know I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I started a new job in June, and for the first year, I get 5 days of sick leave (I've already had to use 1 full day due to a colonoscopy I had done a couple of weeks ago). In terms of being sick, if it comes down to it, I'll take a day without pay. I don't perform as well when I'm sick, which means I'm not doing the company any good.

[NewWaveChick1981]

20. I agree completely.

:grr: I realize that not everyone has sick leave to use, but I do, and if I am sick, I STAY HOME and/or go to the doctor if I need to. Doctors can't cure colds, so if it's a cold, I stay at home and recuperate. I don't get sick very often, but when I do, I try to respect everyone else and keep my germs to myself. I wish the Associate Director in our office had done that in late Sept., because I caught her stupid upper respiratory infection. :nuke: :mad: I had sense enough to stay home and let the damn thing run its course.

[Ivan Sputnik]

22. Luckily I don't get sick very often

...knock on wood. But we are so short staffed at work that if I did get ill and took sick time, I'd have a near disaster to deal with when I returned. I think there's pressure not to take sick time if you can possibly drag yourself in at a lot of workplaces.

[cutlassmama]

23. Very much so. I used to hate that when I was

working. Every time a person came to work sick then I would get it. Even back in High school I got both mono and scarlet fever from people who came to school sick. I think it's just plain selfishness.