“Marguerite Gautier” sick, not “Michael Jackson” sick. As we get no sick days at work, one of my coworkers is sitting about, mmmm, 30 feet from me, coughing her lungs out and whispering in a raspy voice. I am certainly avoiding going any closer to her, but–in a pretty unventilated office–am I doomed? Will opening a window help?
I am by no means an expert, but I’ve read that the best way not to catch something is to wash your hands regularly. So scrub 'em down, and hopefully a better answer will come.
You might want to check with your Human Resources people. Where I work, coming to work sick is against company policy. They don’t want you making everyone else sick. If this person has a fever, it’s reasonable to assume she is infectious.
A cough or seeze travels a foot or so, because the droplets are heavy. If you’re close enough to feel droplets on your face, you may catch her cold, but that’s rarely how it happens. Hand washing is your best defense, both her hands and yours.
Droplets of an adult sneeze can easily travel 70 feet. There is nice, old footage of this. The best way to avoid a cold is to wash hands frequently in hot soapy water, and to not touch your mucus membranes, that is rub your eyes etc. The hot soapy water helps to remove the grease patches on your hands where bacteria thrive. Still some infections can be transmitted through the air and in droplets far to small to actually feel.
But speaking as a person with bad cold, whose co-workers had bad colds last week, you can run but you can’t hide.
Prevention might be the only solution left, so get a flu shot next year. It should be on the company’s dime, if they are so anxious not to have sick employees.
Keep up the good work!
Yah, I offerred this to my employees, and out of 17, only two wanted to do it. I had arranged a doctor to come and administer them, but his minimum callout was 10 people. I offerred to pay these two staff to get them done at a doctors place of work, but they did not bother.
Still, we got off easy this year, coming into spring now,a nd did not have any serious cold / flu stuff going around (employees get eight sick days a year here).
Try looking for another job, somewhere they treat their employees like human beings.
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My company as no “dime,” nor an HR department, which is why she comes to work sick. It sounds like she has a bad case of bronchitis, which worries me, as I am very suseptible to that and it lasts forever.