Office nosferatu
There seems to be one in every office, every store, every group of friends. That one guy who decides that in spite of illness he just has to go out and make sure you get nice and infected. It happens to me all of the time, and honestly it gets incredibly frustrating. I mean, come on, it’s the 21st century. We know how diseases spread. We know about bacteria and viruses. We know about communicable diseases and how to get over them as quickly as possible.
Every doctor I’ve had has had the same recommendation: drink lots of fluids, eat well, and get some fucking sleep. When I get sick I take a couple days off of work and do exactly that. Yeah, I’ve added taking some vitamin supplements, and like most I take some drugs to work on the symptoms, but the core of the treatment is the same. Nutrition, hydration, and sleep. For a smoker I tend to recover pretty quickly. Fancy that…listening to my doctor yields positive results.
What I don’t do is show up at work and cough on everybody in sight spreading germs on every surface I touch.
Granted, I can’t entirely blame these people. After all we get to see tons of commercials about how you can treat all of the symptoms and carry on as though nothing has happened at all. Smile on your face, briefcase in hand you head off to yet another productive workday spreading the still very active disease you carry within you. We also can’t forget that a lot of jobs don’t take kindly to taking a little time off to get over the flu much less a cold. Of course that’s a policy that simply has to bite them in the ass as it spreads through the personnel.
For me it comes down to one simple thing at the end of the day: consideration. As much as I may want to hang out with people, and believe me I’m a very social person, I know that basic etiquette tells me it is best to stay home, get better, and not put everyone else at risk.