I believe if people are genuinely sick, they should take a day or two off work to recover. If they make their sniffling way into the office, they are doing no-one any favours. They should stay at home and NOT spread their germs across shared work surfaces, where their colleagues pick up the baton and join the relay. Their 'working like a trooper' attitude does nothing to alleviate the issue. The spread of disease continues through coughs filled with airborne germs and the smearing of germs around shared kitchens, bathrooms, telephones and keyboards. For a couple of weeks now, work has been suffering the effects of one such 'situation'.
Normally I watch, as one by one, others around me fall victim to the latest illness. Many disappear for a few days of recovery before retuning to the fold refreshed and well slept. Others stick around to "push on". Usually I avoid the passing of bugs from one work colleague to the next, politely declining generous offers to share their ills. Usually.
This time however, somewhere along the way, my body, without my permission I might add, took up the offer and joined the party. It started with a tickle in my throat, which turned to a slow warm singe and then a full burn within a day. A cold was soon added to the mix, and, exacerbated by breathing constantly through my nose, a dry persistent cough. Before I knew it, I was suffering the effects of "The Dreaded Lurgy".
I found avoiding talking was my best medicine. At home alone (with Mal at work) the conversation was limited and generally went unanswered, and I was mostly ok. If only I could refrain from talking completely. At work, where talking was unavoidable, my coughing was impossible to contain. And so the last two days I have been at home resting.
Yes resting. Me.
And I am feeling so much better for it.
I'm ready to face the world once more... and start talking again!
8 comments:
Oh I totally agree - for me though, my gripe is usually people bringing their sick kids to playgroups, music classes etc etc...glad to hear you are starting to feel better. Take it easy, Bec.
Yes Yes yes - At work we have over 500 kids and 40 odd staff I think we have the same bug thats been there since the school openend , just travelling round to new people each week.
urh, I used to HATE having sick people at work.. and on the bus. It's awful though because there's so much guilt about taking sick days (or there was in our office), but it just leads to more people being sick. I used to get hassled for wiping down the shared-phone with disinfectant when there was a sickness in the office. And you should have seen the raging germaphobe come out in me when a girl came to work with a mystery illness the doctors couldn't diagnose, covered in red spots and all! ... eeek.
Mind you, now I'm working at home, unexposed to anything, I bet I'll be the first to fall with the next super-flu, as I won't have had any gradually built immunity. ;)
Glad you've had an opportunity to rest and recover!
Good for you for taking some time off. I have too this week and am at home restting as my 'dreaded lurgy' has turned into Laringytis...much to the amusement of my partner as I wasn't able to speak! The voice is back and very husky not becoming though, I sound like I have been sick... So rest & recouperate I'm there with you!
So glad to hear you're feeling better after giving yourself a good rest!
I really hate people coming to work sick. I used to work in an office where there was only 3 of us (the boss, me(his PA) and the draftie). The rule there was that you HAD to take time off if you were sick. As it was the boss's own company, he would always pay us for as much sick leave as we needed over a year.
Here in Japan however, teachers come in with really bad 'flus with high fevers. They then not only pass it around in the staff room, but also to the students, so there is no escaping it. I get sick here so often it's stupid.
Oooh I hope you get better really soon! When will bosses learn to tell their employees to stay home or go home and take their damn germs with them!
They would actually save more sick days by not having sick people at work!
Get well soon! Lou
I cannot tell you how much I agree with you about people needing to take time off when they are sick. More often than not I get upset with the employers for creating workplaces that are not encouraging of this policy. People feel pressured to be there, to save their sick days, to push through etc... I actually worked for a company that encouraged you to work sick and gave you rubbing alcohol to spray on your shared phone and keyboard so you wouldn't get others sick...that was the solution! It's one thing if like Flossy-p says, the employee chooses to do this as prevention, but it's another when the employer does.yqweszf
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