It’s no secret that I’m a germaphobe. I wash my hands many,
many times per day and will not touch anything on Metro if I can help it. While
we’re on the topic of Metro, does it bother anyone else when you see someone,
especially someone who looks professional (I somehow equate the professionalism to common sense
but that’s almost never the case), and they use the hand they were just holding
onto the public transit railing with to rub their eyes or nose? This makes me want to
vomit. How do people not know or care to not do that? Gross.
Anyway…
While I admit I'm OCD, I believe I'm well within my rights to be seriously annoyed when people who are sick, show such a
lack of regard to passing on their germs to others. Please, please, PLEASE
stay home if you’re sick. I know that sadly with work you can’t always stay
home especially through the duration of the illness – I get that – but at the
very least, stay out of my office unless it’s absolutely imperative for you to
come in. Don’t come in, sit down and shoot the breeze with me whilst casually
mentioning you’re "really sick." I will be really irritated with you. Especially
since I had nose surgery a month ago and it still hurts to touch my nose, so
blowing it 24/7 because of an acquired illness due to your negligence will not
make me happy. If you must go out in
public while you’re sick, because after all, life can’t just stop, please
don’t touch anything, please bring purell, please sneeze into your ELBOW – NOT YOUR
HANDS - and certainly do NOT try and drink out of my drink or take a bite of my
food.
I realize that some just accept the inevitability of getting
sick but I am not one of those people. Hopefully surgery has placated the
phenomena of 99% of my colds turning into a full-blown sinus infection which is a big reason why I really don't want to get sick to begin with. I do
everything I can to not infect others should I be harboring anything which could be considered contagious
– I go to great lengths to protect you. I also realize it’s cold and flu season
and that I ride the diseased-ridden Metro daily but guess what, friends? I don’t
care. Please don’t think you’re doing your friends any favors by agreeing to –
or worse – initiating a get-together when you’re a walking virus. Stay home.
Get better. At the very least, alert me to your illness before we agree on
anything. Please don’t make the decision for me.
I realize that despite my best efforts in trying to stay healthy, I will likely succumb to some sort of illness. OK, fine. I won't be happy but I'll be a whole lot more pissed if I'm sick and you were the last person I saw and you were sick.
Finally, don’t give me crap if I decide to reschedule our
get-together due to an illness (mine or yours). I’m trying to protect you and I’m
trying to protect myself. This is not an unreasonable thing.
Stay healthy, friends and for god’s sake STAY HOME IF YOU’RE
SICK!!!!
PS: I'm not sick... YET. With my luck, I probably will be after today's encounter, though (and also because I just jinxed myself).
PS: I'm not sick... YET. With my luck, I probably will be after today's encounter, though (and also because I just jinxed myself).
Totally agreed. In a medium sized office (33 people) we are a germ factory. Somebody's kid is sick and they come in with the sniffles and then the person who sits next to them is sick and it's a domino effect. One after another, we all end up getting it. I mean the worst thing is, 99% of them are fully equipped to "work from home" so they're just being incredibly selfish. Especially when it results in someone getting sick who then goes home and infects their own family and small children.
ReplyDeleteYep. It's a vicious cycle. I mean, if you can work from home, and you're sick, why the heck wouldn't you?
DeleteBecause people are assholes.
DeleteDude. I hear you. I had this super important job interview on Tuesday last week and I had to go to the walk-in clinic because I was coming down with a UTI....of course I was at a doctor's office, but i was TERRIFIED to catch whatever everyone else had arround me. Particularly because the UK had a super bad season of the cruiseship Noro Virus thingy. The puking/shitting disease....Hundreds of sick people. I bathed in antibacterial lotion afterwards.
ReplyDeleteOh god. How wonderful if you were lucky enough to get some GI bug on-top of a UTI. Kill me.
DeletePeople do this at my office too. They come to ask my questions and their noses are red and their sniffling and sound like shit - um, get the hell outta here! My friends, I can tolerate if they're sick. Many of my friends live alone so yeah, I'll go play sick nurse for them. Luckily, other than my allergies I have a pretty strong immune system.
ReplyDeleteI'm more tolerant of friends and even more tolerant when they warn me first that they're sick. You just jinxed yourself, AJ!
Delete