sent home for blowing my nose 1

[trixierebecca]

I've had allergies on and off for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I wake up sneezing, and it goes away after a while. It's not something I worry much about, and I don't let it stop me from living my life.

Until today, it has never been a problem. I have been on this contract since December. In all my years of working, nothing like this has ever happened. I am 41 years old now. After about 45 minutes at the office, I get this e-mail from my supervisor:

Subject: I hear you are sick. Do me a favor.
Body: Take home some reading and your laptop to work from home until you are better.

My response: My nose was a little runny this morning. It has cleared up though.

His next message: Great. Go home, use your laptop today, and come in tomorrow.

I got up and went home. I was not happy. I had things that needed to be done there. I have not taken this laptop home in many months and generally lock it up every night. I have not designed my space at home for working from home. And I am not interested in working over a slow VPN connection. Bottom line, my productivity was seriously harmed by this. I don't like "working from home."

What should I do to make sure this does not happen again? I have went into my workplaces much worse on many, many occasions in my lifetime. I have worked with walking pneumonia and bad laryngitis. I once worked after getting a flu shot and was sneezing all day constantly. I still get my job done.

Once I left, I also went about eight hours before sneezing again.

 

[hjgoldstein]

Three sugestions.

1. Speak to the suprvisor, say what you said in this post - especially about the home setup/productivity loss thing - and if you don't hear what you want, escalate to management.

2. Take anti-histamines when you feel the allergies kicking in.

3. Find another contract where the people aren't so "sensitive".

It is time for pacifists to stand up and fight for their beliefs.

 

[trixierebecca]

I have never went over a supervisor's head. It's tempting though. I wonder how it would work out. I have plenty of other reasons for not liking this current contract.

There are a few other solutions:

1. Go in early before he gets there. That would get any morning sneezing out of my system.

2. Work somewhere else if I am sneezing. I could have went to the data center or the lab at the other end of the building.

I don't know what this guy's priorities are. This is a guy who often ignores e-mails about many different things. He even totally ignored a phone call of mine. I think some of the jerkoffs just want to make a statement occasionally: "I'm the boss. Don't forget it." I've worked under lots of idiots who would not have pulled this stunt.

 

[hjgoldstein]

Did he give a reason for asking you to go home? Was he or someone else disturbed by your sneezing? Was he or someone else worried that you may infect them with the dreaded lurgy?

If he has concerns of this kind maybe you need something from the docs to say you are not contagious/infectious.

I didn't mean for you to go over the supervisor's head. Just ask him, because you disagree with his "solution" to a "problem", to allow you to raise it with management for their take on it.

In any case, you say that you are not happy with other aspects of the contract, so maybe it is ime to move on.

It is time for pacifists to stand up and fight for their beliefs.

 

[Noway2]

Setting aside the fact that you feel affronted because you were sent home for having, allergies, I think your boss' actions are to be commended. Far too many places, and too many bosses, expect one to haul their backside into work when they are sick due to ignorant thinking that they are losing out on productivity. It only takes one employee to come into the office, coughing, sneezing, and spreading their disease on copiers, coffee machines, door knobs, or anything before a large portion of the office has contracted it. While you may be correct in that your affliction is non contagious, your presence would still appear as setting the example that one should be at the office when they are sick.

 

[goombawaho]

The previous comment tripped this wire in my mind, so I have a relevant question: Did you wash your hands after blowing? To not and then go around touching things is pretty disgusting. Maybe THIS is what irritated him.

 

[FredWagner]

I occasionally get a few moments of unprovoked sneezing at the office (it never happens at home) - it has to be allergies to something indoors, since I have no other symptoms - and what solves it quickly is a little dab of unscented hand lotion in each nostril. Protects the sneeze sensors from whatever microscopic stuff that is circulating indoors.

Fred Wagner

 

[ponoodle]

I'm surprised you haven't been sent home for huffing hand sanitizer at work. Kids these days.

My guess is that your boss thinks you're contagious. I'd just let him know that it's just allergies and you that get more work done at the office and all should be well.

 

[SteveTheGeek]

From what you've said, I too would assume that the boss thinks you're contagious and is sending you home for that reason. It's what I'd do, too, though I like to think that I'd check and see whether it is allergy or communicable illness first.

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[CajunCenturion]

@trixierebecca - Your boss has the responsibility to do what is best for the office, not what's best for you. I will grant that your productivity may go down with you working from home, but how productivity does the office lose while you're in? How much of a distraction are you allergy symptoms, both in noise and concerns to everyone else? Overall, your individual loss of productivity because you're out may be less than the overall loss of productivity across the entire office with you in. That means sending you home minimizes the overall loss of production.

Given that you are not contagious and that the allergy symptoms are temporary, I would try to sit down with the boss and explain the situation. I would seek his/her help in finding a relatively isolated location within the building that you may retire to so that you are not a distraction or concern to anyone while your symptoms are acting up. Once the symptoms subside, then you may return to your workspace. That can be the best of both worlds where you are removed temporarily so as not to degrade overall office performance, but not removed entirely so as not to degrade your personal performance.

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[trixierebecca]

Fortunately, I was able to make up the time lost by Friday. Of course, I was there until past 8pm two nights this week. This included missing my tae kwon do class on Thursday. If I had been able to work on Tuesday, maybe this would not have happened. It's hard to tell.

There are also people who depend on me directly to get things done. If I can't do my job, they can't do their job. Thus, my non-productive Tuesday impacted other people and made them less productive. If people have to wait on me to get things done, that makes their job harder. All in all, nothing was gained from any of this.

 

[goombawaho]

You are correct (people relying on you to get their jobs done), but you have the perfect scapegoat - YOUR BOSS. Anybody complains to you, you send them to your boss. He says, "I sent him home" and the stuff rolls right off your back. Can't get any better deniability than that.

I hope you're NOT staying until 8:00 p.m. without compensation. In the long run, being the heroic good guy at work will not keep you in a job, especially if management changes. I've learned this twice - all good deeds of the past evaporate and are reset when new direct management takes over OR upper management changes.

Learn to walk out the door with stuff undone unless it's your boss that is driving the late staying. If it's just you doing it to be the good guy, you're a chump.

 

[trixierebecca]

Do you people read my posts here? I stayed past 8:00 pm twice to make up for all the work that was lost on Tuesday. I got in 40 hours. I should have gotten in more hours on Tuesday. I got in two hours on Tuesday.

 

[goombawaho]

Yes, read post entirely. Understood it too. I was merely extrapolating your comments into future "late nights" and analyzing their overall benefit to your job.

 

[hjgoldstein]

Do you people read my posts here?

Slow down with these posts. People are trying to help you here and if you think before hitting the "Submit" button you might benefit. Otherwise you may just get ignored.

It is time for pacifists to stand up and fight for their beliefs.

 

[gbaughma]

I have worked in places where they would rather you go home than get everyone in the office sick.

I certainly agree with that philosophy.

My advice would be to talk to your supervisor, and state that you have allergy/sinus issues.
Take an antihistamine.
The supervisor is obviously unaware of your condition, and was acting in the best interests of the office. Additionally, the supervisor may be a "germ-o-phobe".

99% of problems are communications problems. Obviously, your super is unaware, and mis-interpreted the data. Fix that miscommunication, and the problem should go away.


Just my 2¢

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--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[blister911]

@trixierebecca
If sending sick people home is common practice (I would find out), then maybe you should consider having an area available at home to use as a temporary work space. I realize that VPN access is slower than being at work. However, if you consider the time it takes to get going in the morning, plus drive time to and from work, you may come out a lot closer to even if you just called in and said you're working from home for the day.

Our management understands that one sick person slows things down, but several within the same department start to make it difficult to even "keep the lights on". They have gone as far as approving the purchase of 2nd monitors for us to keep at home for just those kinds of situations.


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