2nd Trimester

How to handle a co-worker with a cold?

So last week, one of my co-workers that is in a cube nearby me started to get all the symptoms of a cold during the day. He did not go home at all, even though people kept telling him to. He even came in the next day and is still sick today. I am really annoyed by the fact that he doesn't think about the possibility of getting anyone else sick. And since I am pregnant it is super-annoying since I can't take very many things to help if I get sick.

How should I politely handle trying to stay away from him until he gets better? What should I say?

BabyFruit Ticker

Re: How to handle a co-worker with a cold?

  • I would avoid going near him, use lots of hand sanitizer, and if he talks to you---back away and say, I apologize, but I cannot get sick..... usually people seem to be understanding.

    Or...if you are me, a co-worker who I swear got me sick like 3 times last winter....I saw him coughing one day and I just pointed at the door and he got the picture.  People don't like to get pregnant women sick...so chances are your co-worker is not coming to work just to make you mad! :)

  • do you HAVE to say anything? how much do you normally interact with him? if you can get away with just emailing or IM'ing him, instead of walking over to his desk, i'd do that as much as possible.

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  • I had a colleague who was hacking all over the place and never covers his mouth (so annoying). He's normally on a different side of the building, but when he came near my office, I told him to cover his mouth because no one wanted his plague over here. He got an earful from everyone who works around me, especially because I'm preggers. (I work with all men and they're very protective). Anyway, he got the hint and left. If you're office is casual and you tell him to get away in funny but serious way, he'll get the hint. In the meantime, your prenatals boost your immune system, just wash your hands a lot and drink your oj
    BFP #1 05/11/10 Natural m/c 05/17/10 BFP #2 12/07/10 Natural m/c 12/12/10 BFP #3 01/21/11 Taking Prometrium, Baby Aspirin, and two injections of heparin a day Lightning Bug was born a healthy and happy 7lbs 14oz on 9/20/211
  • 2-Step2-Step member

    Honestly I would just flat out tell him that you don't want to catch his cold and would prefer to stay away from him until he is better. I work in a small office and it sucks because sometimes we have to come to work with a cold. For instance I had to come in to ship something for a trade show or our $500,000 investment in the show would go to waste. I apologized, used hand sanitzer and let everyone know I would do my best to stay away from them. LIke pper said - he isn't coming to work to get you sick, he may actually have to be there.

    I totally understand you don't want to get sick, but if I were him I wouldn't be offended if someone told me they would rather communicate over email as needed. Use your hand sanitizer and take your vitamins. That is just kind of the reality of working in an office. Usually I think of it by daycare rules - if you have a fever, throwing up, diarrhea you should stay home no matter what. If you have a cold it is better to stay home, but it is not always realistic and that's life.

  • I would go talk to my supervisor...maybe (if possible) you could work from home for a few days.

     

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  • I get 6 paid sick days a year, which is more than a lot of people, I know.  By your logic he should have already burned through 3 of them for a COLD.  I get that you don't want to get sick so wash your hands a lot but really, you can't expect people to stay home over a cold.
    Formerly known as elmoali :)

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  • jnealetjnealet member
    image2-Step:

    Honestly I would just flat out tell him that you don't want to catch his cold and would prefer to stay away from him until he is better. I work in a small office and it sucks because sometimes we have to come to work with a cold. For instance I had to come in to ship something for a trade show or our $500,000 investment in the show would go to waste. I apologized, used hand sanitzer and let everyone know I would do my best to stay away from them. LIke pper said - he isn't coming to work to get you sick, he may actually have to be there.

    I totally understand you don't want to get sick, but if I were him I wouldn't be offended if someone told me they would rather communicate over email as needed. Use your hand sanitizer and take your vitamins. That is just kind of the reality of working in an office. Usually I think of it by daycare rules - if you have a fever, throwing up, diarrhea you should stay home no matter what. If you have a cold it is better to stay home, but it is not always realistic and that's life.

     

    This.  There are a milllion reasons why sick people have to come into work.  My co-worker had pneunomia and plursey, sits right next to me and I know she's working on a project that has to be done.  I don't begrudge her for being here.  I could just as easily pick up a cold from the grocery store or the park...or from my sick child coughing in my face because she's 2 and all she wants when she's sick is her mommy.  That's where I got my last one and it was a doozy, probably the worst cold I've ever had and I survived, while I was pregnant no less.

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  • I can't really say I'd do anything differently than if I wasn't pregnant (assuming it really is just a cold and not something worse).  Then again, I've already dealt with a bad cold this pregnancy and while I was miserable, it wasn't the end of the world.

    If he's that bad, just stay away from him - do you work so closely with him that you're forced to have close face-to-face interactions with him?

    AVT - 12.2.11
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  • In the US we generally have to work if we are just a little sick.  It happens and I'm very sure that none of us could cast the first stone at this guy.

    However, since I'm PG (have not announced in my office yet), I've just become quite blunt towards people.  Everyone feels the need to stop by my office and tell me how sick they are.  I think because I work mostly with men and I'm the "mommy" of the office?  I have no idea why but they do.

    I told one guy who was in my office all sniffly and red-nosed to get out and send me an email.  I got up and moved from a seat during a meeting b/c the guy I was sitting next to was just drippy and gross.  I handed another guy a Lysol wipe for the door knob. 

    I know it sounds awful but I'm doing it such a way that I'm not being b!tchy about it, I say it w/ a bit of humor but they get the message and leave.  I just tell them point blank, " I'm terribly sorry your aren't feeling well but I really can't afford to get sick."  No one has taken any offense to it.  As far as I know.  If they did I wouldn't care anyway.

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  • Personally I was sick last week with a bad cold... and I was surely not wasting my sick days now before the baby comes. So I was working... I used hand sanitizer, I didn't hang out around people for too long, and if someone was uncomfortable interacting with me... I left them. Just tell him to go away before he gets you and baby sick!
  • linamyklinamyk member

    I guess what bothers me is the individual that has the cold. I understand that people come to work sick, but every one else in my office is considerate and does stay away, use hand sanitizer etc. It's just this one person. And I have to walk by his desk, literally 6 feet away, to get out of mine.

    Plus, I just got over a two week sinus infection so I am not really wanting to get sick again.

    BabyFruit Ticker
  • imagelinamyk:

    I guess what bothers me is the individual that has the cold. I understand that people come to work sick, but every one else in my office is considerate and does stay away, use hand sanitizer etc. It's just this one person. And I have to walk by his desk, literally 6 feet away, to get out of mine.

    Plus, I just got over a two week sinus infection so I am not really wanting to get sick again.

    I get that you're peeved, but you're pregnant, you don't have an immune disorder (do you?) Walking past the desk won't get you sick. Touching things, then your face (eyes, nose, mouth, ect.) will get you sick. Wash your hands, kindly provide this co-worker with a box of tissues that is supposed to 'keep and kill bacteria' as a friendly gesture and always have to 'pee' each time he comes around. He'll get the hint.

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  • imageSharra711:

    I get that you're peeved, but you're pregnant, you don't have an immune disorder (do you?)

    While it may not be as severe as someone with an immune disorder, pregnancy does lower your immune system.  It's one of the ways our bodies adapt to reduce the chance of rejecting our LO's.

    I know, for me, this has been one of the roughest symptoms of being pregnant... I get exposed to any sort of bug and I catch it.  Moreover, it takes more than twice as long to kick it as it usually would.  I've had multiple colds already and fought a UTI for the first five months of my pregnancy.  It took four rounds of antibiotics to kick it. :P

    So, I can relate to the poster's concern.  I actually had to deal with a similar issue last week at work when a co-worker returned to the office with pneumonia that really didn't appear to be responding to the antibiotics she'd been taking.  She had already be out for a week and exhausted her sick leave, so I understood what motivated her to be back at work.  But I also wasn't happy about sitting right next to her while she hacked miserably all day long.

    I am very fortunate that I have the option to work at home part time and that I have a very understanding boss.  I called my boss from outside the office and explained what was going on.  She told me to head home and work from there for as many days as I needed until I felt comfortable to be back in the office.

     

     

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