Take Your Damn Germs HOME.

The BBQ Pit
21

I have been to work the last three days with a miserable head cold. I’d much rather be in bed. But because I’m on shift work, if I’m not there when I’m scheduled, someone else has to be. I have called all over trying desperately to find someone to cover for me, but everybody “has plans.” :frowning:

So, the first night, I’m present but practically useless. Still I gotta stay because I’m in charge. The second night I got to go home early after I got as much done as possible so it didn’t put my co-workers out. Today, I popped a lot of pseudoephedrine/ibuprofen, sneezed my head off and washed my hands repeatedly to the point that they are raw. I’m completely exhausted.

I don’t want to be there and don’t think I should have to be. I really don’t want to be spreading this around to my co-workers and customers. But what am I gonna do? I have to work when I’m scheduled or find someone else. Too bad I found nobody with half a heart to take over for me. Sorry for exposing our customers.

I have to work the next three nights too. :frowning:
:: sobbing pitifully ::

22

I agree. Unfortunately it ain’t that simple. If you employer doesn’t grant you sick time and you can’t afford to lose the hours, whatcha gonna do? It sucks, but unless you’re practically dying, you have to come into work sick. Blame it on the cheapskate corporate asswipes. At my place of employment we recently lost our sick time. This only amounted to eight hours each for full-time employees (and none of us are the types that “take advantage” of it). Sucks.

23

Yeah, I used to have a job working for a very large fast food chain, and I called in sick one day with stomach cramps. The area supervisor was running the store at the time because all of our managers kept quitting and he harassed me over the phone to come in, even though I was sick as a dog. That’s really what you want, isn’t it? Someone doubled over with stomach cramps, handling food. :rolleyes:

24

Holy shit, that poor little thing! That’s fucking abuse in my opinion.

25

I wish MY employees would be near “that almost half”. They are on the other side of “almost half”…57.32% for Mondays and Fridays combined. But hey, what the hell do I know about MY employees?

26

I love it when students show up about to drop dead at the threshold of my office.

“Brofessor Freeth? I’b nod feedig too good. Is it okay if I biss class doday?”

Sweet zombie Jesus! Do not even come into my office! The lecture notes are online, and if you come to office hours when you are well I would be delighted to go over them line by line with you. GO HOME!

Considering the continuous parade of virus-shedding contagu-bombs that drag themselves from the festering pits of rhinovirus known as the dormatories to my office or my classroom, is it any wonder that I get good and sick at least once every fall and every winter?

Just send a freakin’ e-mail!

27

Can I just say you are a rare professor? Most of mine in were pretty draconian about attendance. There was one who was downright off his rocker about it. I know a guy who got the chicken pox his freshman year. He was not allowed to be in the dorms while he was contagious, but our “No Absenses, No Exceptions” professor told him that he was not excused from the midterm, and would get an F. The dean of students had to intercede. I’m not making that up.

His policy was that your final grade was docked one level for each absence. (Like from an A to an A-). A friend of mine got her grade docked for missing class because she’d been taken to the hospital with a concussion. When I had his class, I did in fact spew the germs from a wicked case of bronchitis all over my fellow students. As I recall, he had the nerve to reprimand me for disrupting class with the cough.

If you got this guy as a freshman, chances are you’d spend the rest of your college career having other teachers asking you why in hell you’re not home in bed.

Gotta love people who abuse their tenure.

28

On the very rare occasion that I got sick, once in college it was before a midterm. I had walking pnuemonia, strep throat, sinus infection and ear infection (apparently the little strep germs migrated to my sinuses and ears) and my professor didn’t want to let me miss and make up the midterm. It was the one and only time I was glad my advisor was department chair, because he pulled rank for me.

29

Hehe.

30

I wish I COULD take my germs home. I feel awful today, but I have no sick days. Unless my boss orders me home with pay, I can’t afford not to be here. Luckily, I have my own little cubicle far from everyone else, and it’s very unlikely I’ll infect anyone. I’m not coughing, so that won’t hurt anyone.

I would LOVE to be at home in bed right now with my sore throat, fever, and achy joints. If anyone knows how to make that happen without losing pay, let me know.

E.

31

Thank goodness you were thoughtful enough to not touch the doorknob when you came to work, or touch the faucet when you used the bathroom, because indirect contact is a prime method of infectious disease transmission:

32

Actually, I didn’t - I used my coat to open it. And I always use paper towels to turn on the faucet - I’m anal about that. Believe me, everyone else in the office has already BEEN sick with this - I’m the last to get it. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s them for not staying home. They’re the ones who have sick days, not me.

If I COULD go home, I would. But I’m only in my fourth week working here, and the boss, while a fantastic boss, is not going to send me home without sick time.

E.

33

While staying home when you are sick is definitely something everyone should do if they possibly can, keep in mind that colds and flu are actually most contagious before someone even knows they are sick. Which is why such things will always be with us, more or less. It is definitely worthwhile to get a flu vaccination every year if possible.

34

There are asshole professors all over. Just ask catsix; I’m one of them. :smiley:

But I don’t know that my attendance policy really all that rare. Of course when people start complaining about it, you only hear stories about the about crazy professors who have bizarre expectations, not the 98% who are reasonable. (That 98%, of course, are probably adhering to school policy, which, in every institution I’ve ever attended or taught at, states that students with documentation from a medical professional stating that they are not well enough to attend class must be excused and allowed to make up the work.)

While it’s true that I am a deeply sympathetic and compassionate human being and a true saint among professors, really, the energy I’d expend fighting about a draconian attendance policy is just simply not worth it. I would think that if a professor established policies based on the notion that no students are ever going to miss class, they’d get a reality check pretty soon. In my 90-student lecture, I’m almost gauranteed to have at least one student get seriously ill and end up in the hospital every semester, not to mention the dozens who come down with sniffles, flu, mono, strep, and all that fun stuff. And broken legs, and court appearances about illegal music downloads, and terminally ill parents, and best friends dead in car accidents (2) and sudden diagnoses of pschiatric disorders, and . . . (All those examples are Real Life Events from the last two semesters.)

Who the hell wants to have a knock-down drag out fight over every class a student misses?

Though if so many other professors really are such dicks about it, that would explain why the drippy-nosed disease vectors come groveling to my door—though they could have just STAYED HOME AND READ THE SYLLABUS where my wildly liberal attendance policy is clearly spelled out.

Now, the people who wander in the last week of the semseter and say, “Like, I missed some class and stuff because I, like, came down with ebola last month? Could I, like, make up that work? And, um, that’s why I did bad on Exam 2. Can I retake it?” Sorry, Charlie. I don’t actually expect you to READ the syllabus, but it is nice to be able to wave it under your nose and point to the part about timely notification.

35

As if to prove my point about what a jerk he is, my boss called a very sick “team member” and demanded he come in for the afternoon meeting yesterday. When the sickie refused, boss called him every 10 minutes to ask inane questions during the needlessly long 90 minute meeting. I hate my job.

36

One of my mother’s private-duty nurses came to work sick today! I told her, “you should be home in bed, you poor dear, go home now,” thinking, “You don’t come to a facility full of frail elderly people when you’re sick, you stupid sack of shit!” If she gave anything to my mother, I’ll goddam kill the bitch.

She is so fired. This is just the last straw: she’s been using my mother’s phone and lying to me about it (I pay the phone bill, idiot), driving her car (there was a hip-hop station on the radio when I turned it on last) without permission (or insurance to be “borrowing” it). Once you can’t trust a private-duty nurse, she’s outta there. But showing up to “take care of” my mother, who has bronchial asthma, when she’s sick? I don’t care how much she needs the money, she’s a healthcare worker and should know better than that, she could wipe put half the population of the home!

37

These are the idiots that give the rest of us employers a bad reputation. Smack him for me. :smack:

38

Please don’t encourage me to commit workplace violence. I’m already having fantasies involving coworkers fleeing before me and my diesel powered weed whacker.

39

Well, that’s a fine way to tell us all that you’re expecting! I mean, really, how long were you going to keep this from us? :wink:

40

I had a professor with a worse policy this last semester. If you miss even one class, you fail for the semester. Period. One of the students in another section came to class at the height of the flu. She literally had to crawl into the classroom because she couldn’t stand up- but missing that class would fail you. Oh, she had an exception- you could attend the funeral of either a sibling or parent if you brought in the obituary beforehand along with proof of the relationship, and she might give you leniency if you were hospitalized for more than 3 days. Otherwise, you fail.