Sick customer service workers...

[Slabobbin]

When you are in a store or paying a bill...basically anyplace that you have to have human contact with another person in order to conduct your business, and the person is obviously sick and hacking and coughing, do you get irritated that she could be spreading her sickness to you and your children or do you feel for her and understand that she may not be allowed or can afford sick leave?

[Taneli]

More like feel for her. There is just too many instances when you have to go to work even if you are sick.

[HunnyBunnyBoo]

I feel bad for the worker. And situations like that are why I have antibacterial hand gel in my purse.

[Clio]

do you feel for her and understand that she may not be allowed or can afford sick leave?

That's the only thing that ever crosses my mind.

If someone was able to take the time off, I'm sure they would.

[Slabobbin]

Just to play devil's advocate (because I can see both sides)...if you were to go pay an electric bill and the customer service worker were to be hacking and coughing all over your bill and then you and then your children came down with pmunioa (sp?) or something..you wouldn't be upset and think she should have stayed at home regardless?

[mom2burgess]

I feel for her, I have worked jobs while I am sick, and when I tried to call in, I was told I had to come in OR ELSE. If my kids got sick, I would most likely be upset at the management who either didn't send her home, or who made her work sick

[Slabobbin]

If my kids got sick, I would most likely be upset at the management who either didn't send her home, or who made her work sick

What if it were neither? What is she voluntarly came in because she had not been smart and put money in saving as an "emergency fund" for things like this and she "couldn't afford" to take off?

[JCD]

If I came down with a cold, it would never cross my mind to run the past week's events through my mind so I had someone to blame for my predicament. :shrug: Life happens. Blaming isn't exactly productive.

[Clio]

What is she voluntarly came in because she had not been smart and put money in saving as an "emergency fund"

Jesus. Not everyone makes enough money to allow them to save. Many, many people are living hand-to-mouth.

if you were to go pay an electric bill and the customer service worker were to be hacking and coughing all over your bill and then you and then your children came down with pmunioa (sp?) or something..you wouldn't be upset and think she should have stayed at home regardless?


I would be thinking she obviously came to work because she needed the money or because she though she was well enough.

[Shannonigans]

I'd probably feel sorry for her. God knows I"ve had to go to work sick. The past few years I've had to work part time or temporary jobs that offer no sick time, vacation time, etc...if you call in you loose money. Simple as that. I have called in a few times because of running a fever but just for the sniffles? Nah probably not...besides I have horrible allergies in the spring and sometimes it's really hard to tell the difference between allergies and a cold.

[Clio]

then you and then your children came down with pmunioa (sp?) or something

For the record, I've had walking-pneumonia and as JCD said the last thing on my mind was to track back through recent events and see who I could possibly have picked it up from.

Someone sneezing on the street a few seconds before you pass can just as easily make you ill as someone sneezing and coughing into your face.

BTW, pneumonia is quite difficult to contract through contact with people.

[Shannonigans]

I would say that it would bother me MORE to see an obviously sick person that works in a fast food place or any restaurant. I have 2 jobs and one of them is at Dominos, a pizza place. On the few ocassions that I've had the sniffles and knew it wasn't allergies I just avoided the food and answered the phones instead.

Would it bother you more depending on what type of job they were working at? Customer service covers a lot of different scenarios!

[Slabobbin]

If it was something that I had no choice in doing (paying a bill by the due date, renewing a license, etc.) and this person was put into a position of direct contact with the customers (instead of working in the back like Shannon mentioned), it would bother me. That may not be "compassionate" but it is how I feel. I probably wouldn't really be that pissed if *I* got sick but if my baby got sick I would be upset.

And I didn't have this in mind when I started this thread but I see this similar to vaccinations. The people who are against them say that they are only affecting themselves. The people who are rabidly for them say that their kids are in danger as well from your unvaxed kid. Where is all the outrage here that I see there?

Why would you be upset if your baby caught an illness (that wasn't likely to kill them but has that chance) from a child who was unvaxed but not upset and all compassionate if they caught an illness (that wasn't likely to kill them but has that chance) from a customer service worker who decided for whatever reason that they were more important than all of the people they were likely to infect?

Couldn't they wear a mask or something at least?

Now let me also say that *I* don't have savings and that I was just using the pnenmonia as an example. I said earlier that I do see both sides and that I was playing devil's advocate.

[OnederWoman]

I would feel bad that they couldn't take off, regardless of what lead up to them not taking the day off.

The diseases that we vax for are far different then colds/flus what have that are mostly past through couging contact.

Honestly, if I was that worried about my kid coming down with every germ that may head his way, I would keep him home.

[Demona]

What if it were neither? What is she voluntarly came in because she had not been smart and put money in saving as an "emergency fund" for things like this and she "couldn't afford" to take off?

Still the management's responsibility to send them home if they look too ill to work.


In any case, people are usually infectious before they come down with symptoms - no need to blame the most recent obviously ill person when any number of other healthy looking ones could have passed on those germs.

[Mabel]

I honestly wouldn't think about it, except to possibly comment "Oh, you got that rotten bug that's going around?" or something like that. Sometimes you have to go to work regardless of how you feel. In fact, I've heard more people complain about people who DO take off work when they have a cold or something, calling them "whiners" and such.

[Epicurus]

I would feel sorry for her and I would be annoyed to be so obviously contaminated.
If someone coughs all over me I do make a correlation if I get sick a few days later. If I noticed the cough and thought at the time "man, I hope I don't get sick" or whatever it is hard not to make the connection.
You are all a bunch of saints I guess putting others before yourself and your family. Not me.
I do not like to be coughed on by an obviously sick person. I also understand sometimes people have no choice but to go to work.
I do not correlate this at all with vaccines in any way.

A little aside:
Dillon's first year of life was riddled with illness. Our next door neighbor had a baby two months after Dillon was born. They also had a school age child. Those kids went to school and daycare and came home very sick all the time. They were both on antibiotics all the time and the baby had chronic ear infections. This was their normal state of being. They still went to school/daycare. They also came to my front door to knock on it and ask if my kids could play. My kids would come out and play. I would check on them and ask how the boy was doing and he would tell me (after having played with my kids for 15 min already) that he is sick and on antibiotics. Next thing you know, Dillon was sick again. Dillon went on a 9 day nursing strike after one such contagion and severe illness.
Another common scenario is I would be out watering the plants with Dillon and she would bring her baby out to say "hi". As they played together she would tell me how sick her little one was. Too damn late since they are slobbering all over each other already ARGH!
Yeah, I resent knowingly and voluntarily exposing others. If you have no choice that is one thing. If you just don't care it is another. I eventually banned this kid from coming over. I just couldn't take having a sick baby any more. Dillon's illness ended. He has been healthy ever since.
Collette

[Mabel]

If someone coughs all over me I do make a correlation if I get sick a few days later. If I noticed the cough and thought at the time "man, I hope I don't get sick" or whatever it is hard not to make the connection.
You are all a bunch of saints I guess putting others before yourself and your family. Not me.
I do not like to be coughed on by an obviously sick person.
Honestly, if the clerk leaned over and COUGHED ON ME, or literally grabbed whatever he was handing me, and coughed on it, I suppose I'd be frustrated, because...well how rude! LOL. But if they had the sniffles, or would turn their head and cough into their fist (that's how I cough), I would just think it sucks to have to work when you are sick. I guess it depends on how they go about "contaminating" a person.

[Slabobbin]

If someone coughs all over me I do make a correlation if I get sick a few days later. If I noticed the cough and thought at the time "man, I hope I don't get sick" or whatever it is hard not to make the connection. You are all a bunch of saints I guess putting others before yourself and your family. Not me.

Thank you Collette. I had been wondering what twighlight zone I had stepped in to, lol.

[kokopelli]

I would feel for her. Even those who have put money into savings may not have the option to miss work if they want to keep their job.

[Lady Thatcher]

I wouldn't care one way or another. I come into contact with sick people all the time, 99% of the time, not even knowing it. Personally, all I care about is the fact that someone was there, during the NORMAL working hours, for me to pay my bills. I'm not going to feel sorry for her, because I don't know the circumstances behind it, and I'm not going to get pissed off because sickness happens. If I got pissed every time someone coughed around me, I would be a bitter bitter woman.

[abcNKH]

I think I would try to give the worker the benefit of the doubt - that they really couldn't afford to take off sick. But on the other hand, I would try not to have any more contact than necessary.
*
I am lucky that I can take sick time from my job with no $$$ consequences. It irks me that people still come to work sick here - then of course, everyone and their families all end up sick.