Sick Co-workers

I once spoke to my supervisor about a co-worker coming in with a fever. She had oodles of sick time, but wanted to look like a "good employee" by not calling in sick. Coming in puking, with a fever or the big D is just wrong and inconsiderate.

If you know for a fact she is vomiting and has diarrhea, than I would talk to her supervisor about it.

A manager should send her home. doesn't do anyone any good if she makes the whole office sick! People are so stupid.

Is the co-worker a mom? I work part time now, but when I was a full time working mom, all of my sick days (and then some) were used for when DD was sick. I think some people also don't like to call in because of how it will reflect on them. I would think, though, that your co-worker's boss would send her home after seeing how ill she was. Plus, does she tell you how she spends her sick days? Because unless she is personally telling you, then it's hearsay, and no one really knows why she's using her sick days for other things. Also, back then, my DH was an independent contractor & didn't get paid if he didn't work. It was always a no brainer, as far as who would stay home with a sick child.

That is ridiculous! Especially that it's pukes and diarrhea! I would be so upset.

As for the SAHM comment, I'm a SAHM, and no, for whatever reason, my hubby does not stay home. I could be sick, puking, diarrhea, not able to walk down the hallway...I have no sick days. I can't ever think of a time he's stayed home, but maybe he has? And, it's not because he lacks compassion. We rely on his income and have to have him work. Plus, i really haven't been sick for a while, I imagine now (he has a new position) if I was THAT sick, he would take a day off.

Though I do think it's kind of funny that if he takes a sick day, he actually wants to rest and lay in bed. I find myself looking at him, wondering why I can't do that too when I'm sick! If he happens to be home when I'm sick, he is totally fine with me sleeping all day and he takes the kids.

Okay, I've totally veered. Back to your point, yes - that is ridiculous and I would be pretty furious if someone passed the pukes along to me...which then goes to my children! And, as a SAHM it's super easy to not pass it along to other people. When we're sick, we keep it to ourselves.

Iewww. Time for a chat with your manager. Whether to come to work with cold symptoms is and ongoing debate, but I think 99.99% of people agree it's not ok to come in with a stomach virus!

We had an HR manager, of all people, a few jobs back that would cough and hack and you thought he was going to bring up an internal organ. But he would not go home! We all wanted him to go home, because WE did not want to be sick!

I realize that people use their leave time for whatever, but if she consistently does this and gets everybody else (or customers!) sick, maybe bring it up to the manager. I wouldn't so much mention her habits other than the illness thing. And I don't want to know how you know what kind of sick she is!

Well, I was a working mom that had to stay home with my kids every time MY daycare lady was sick. So I used MY vacation days when she was on vacation and MY sick days when she was sick. So of course I spent many a day in the office feeling like death warmed over simply because I didn't have any more time to take since I used it already for every body else!!! Very frustrating for everyone really.

What I can't understand is why someone would want to come to work if they were puking and had diarrhea. Talk about a miserable day!

On the flip side, I used to have a manager when I was younger and VERY successful (Taco Bell) hahaha! She was such a B**** about people calling in sick and wanted you there regardless of symptoms. She used to brag about coming to work sick, like it made her a stronger, more admirable person b/c she "played through the pain". She was a terrible manager and the last straw for me was when my son was in the hospital with RSV at 7 months old. She wanted me to come to work and got super mad when I refused, so I told her that I wouldn't be coming in again at all.

I don't get why some people don't realize that sick time should be saved for when you're sick or an emergency etc.

I just went back to the work force and have not earned any vacation days. We get something like two personal days a quarter...I really need to save mine for if I have a sick child, as I have no one close by who could watch them. Also I work at a Daycare/Preschool and whenever someone calls in it throws everything out of whack...I have gone to work sick, feeling like I had no choice, I took every precaution I could against the possibility of infecting anyone, but knew I was spreading germs. I feel bad, but I look at it as the Directors responsibility, if she feels it is bad for me to be there she will send me home. Truly though, if i was vomiting or had some kind of stomach bug I would NOT go in...that is just sick. Besides at my job I run the risk of not only infecting poor co-workers, but also children! That seems worse!

I would tell your HR person.
No office, wants to get the entire office, sick.

I used to hate that when working.

For the SAHM bit - there are no sick days, even when I dislocated my hip (my husband would go into work late once a friend arrived to help out). My husband doesn't have sick days and we have to leave his days of losing pay for other things.

I would be MAD. So nice of her to give this to all of her coworkers to take home to their kids. My previous employers would not allow people sick like that at work. Lets shut the whole office down......geez.

I used to work for a company where even though they had paid vacation and sick days, they didn't want people using them. If you were sick(or took time off for sick kids) 10 times in one year, you were automatically fired. I didn't have a child at the time, but I felt a lot of pressure to come in even when my allergy symptoms morphed into a sinus infection. One girl with really bad IBS gave up and left one day without telling anyone.

That is disgusting! I would wear a mask around her; maybe she'll get the message. I'm sorry to say, my husband often goes to work even if he's sick - usually only a cold. He's never admitted it but I think it's because he feels the place would fall apart in a heartbeat if he wasn't there. I keep telling him they'd also lay him off in a heartbeat if they had to! He just doesn't get it! But then he also won't take days off to spend time with his family either. Maybe this woman just feels if she uses sick time it's a sign of weakness and they'll get rid of her. Who knows what crazy people think!!! Good luck!!

That person is very inconsiderate. Parents send their sick kids to school too and of course my kid is the one that picks up all those germs. Is the boss aware of this? I guess when he gets sick from that person he will finally get it.

When my husband had a good job with benefits like paid sick days, he used them.

Now he's under part time employment and when he gets sick, he doesn't get paid and we may not have enough to pay all our bills so yea, he goes to work sick. What's sad is he usually GETS sick because another employee with no paid sick days comes in because he is also living paycheck to paycheck trying to make a living and can't afford to be sick and it just cascades through the whole office.

We just got over the plage that rampaged through our house after he just started this job last month. And yes, he went in to work drugged up on dayquil and miserable. Couldn't afford not to.

I never get sick so it doesn't really bother me. Well not completely true, that one awful thing a couple years ago, it started like the flu but then you had cold like symptoms for a month. Yeah that one I got, I think you could get it over the internet it was sooooo contagious. Still the darn fool that brought it in probably didn't know what it was cause she was the first one to get it. I had some hateful thoughts towards her for a while, a month to be exact.

When I was a stay at home mom it wasn't a big deal to be sick. When you know you are sick or one of your kids are sick you just don't spread it. Ya know, clean your hands, keep surfaces clean, don't sneeze on each other. At your home you have full control and knowledge of what is inside the walls. Not like at work where someone takes a mess of stuff to hide the symptoms.

How is it different for single moms? They still gave me my sick days when I was single.

When I was a manager, I was known to send people home when they were so obviously ill that (1) they were contagious and (2) they were really too sick to even be productive at work.

Our Director came in last week with a massive head cold then proceeded to sneeze everywhere. We majorly broke out the hand sanitizer and lysol and not so jokingly told him to go home before we all got sick.

So not fun working next to a "Typhoid Mary"

It is horrible when people come to work sick. My supervisor is a germaphob so if she thinks your sick you will get sent home. It does make it bad when someone uses all of their time but doesn't have time to take off if they are sick but what are they to do. Not many people can afford to take time off without pay so they have to come in and infect eveyone. I keep lysol at my desk. I try to spray often and especially when people have been sick.

LOL I love Baby Doos Mama's response! That's hilarious.

I have mixed emotions honestly. I do understand if you have a cold going to work, but if you are puking or have diarrhea there is no excuse to come into work. I kind of understand with the economy and not being able to afford being fired, but if you are fired for this, then at least you can get the unemployment. I know sometimes unemployment isn't enough for the bills too.

I hate it when sick co-workers come in though. We had one girl that came in coughing every 10 seconds. One of the girls ended up going to our supervisor and then the supervisor sent her home. Her excuse was because she couldn't afford to stay home b/c she didn't have much sick days. I think she ended up with like bronchitis or something. She is actually one of my best friends now though.

I also had heard that you are less likely to catch something from work and more likely from your kids. I don't quite believe this b/c if coughing is going in the air or on doorknobs, you know SOME people don't wash their hands as frequently. I wash mine a dozen times a day!!!!!

I would also suggest going on a Vitamin C supplement of 1000mg a day. This will help your immune system. I know most people think why should I have to purchase this when people are stupid enough not to stay home when they are sick? Well, you will NEVER get away from dumb people. We live in a world where this happens often. So even though you can say it to your boss, don't expect much to happen. Some times bosses don't even get through the most stubborn minded people!