Why do people still insist on coming to work sick?
In the past two weeks, almost my entire company has contracted COVID because people have been coming to work sick. A couple of weeks ago, one coworker came to the office while he was feeling sick - I was off that week so I missed it, but apparently our office admin lady was not happy with the sick coworker, and understandably so. Thankfully that guy does not appear to have had COVID, and no one else got sick at that time. But since then, another field person got COVID and spread it to most of the other field personnel by going to work when he was feeling really bad. Some of those field personnel occasionally come into the office, and I interacted with one of those folks briefly last week. I wasn't feeling well Monday and yesterday, so I stayed home specifically out of respect for the office admin lady, as she has an elderly mother that she helps care for. Thankfully I do not seem to have COVID and am feeling better today, so I came back to the office. Ironically, the admin lady was feeling sick today but came to work anyway, then got a call that her husband tested positive today. So she left to get tested, and of course, she also has COVID. So now everyone in the office has been directly exposed again because a sick person didn't stay home.
On one hand, I realize omicron seems like it is going to infect most people. I have no delusions about avoiding it. And pre-pandemic, I would hardly ever consider staying home sick - I'd just show up, power through, and keep my distance from other people. But COVID has certainly changed my mindset about that, and when someone complains about others not staying home sick, I would expect the same courtesy from that person.
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Posted: 01/19/2022 at 4:06PM