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Tell HN: WFH is the future thanks to inconsiderate people

12 points by user-extended ↗ HN
I'm very recent to the workforce (less than 6 months into my first job ever).

Today a co-worker came in with a constant, never ending cough. According to her "it's from singing too many Christmas Carols" this last weekend, but I doubt that.

She's obviously not wearing a mask, not even one of those cloth ones. Heck, she doesn't even cover her mouth when she coughs.

Not only it is annoying, but it's a reasonable health hazard I thought everyone post-2020 understood could be easily avoided if you stayed home.

Nobody cares, I'm the only one who's fully masked up.

I cannot fully WFH as I'm not in tech, but as an office worker, it's the future with these kinds of people.

26 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 66.1 ms ] thread
runjake
People have been coming into work sick from time immemorial. This isn't going to change anything.

For better or worse, COVID will be treated like the flu or cold going forward. It's not going away and adults aren't going to do the responsible thing.

user-extended
What's beyond me is that it's ANNOYING. I'm at least 20% more unproductive thanks to the never ceasing (listening to it right now) cough. I do not understand why managers cannot wise up to this.
irrational
Assuming you are an American, what is your sick day policy? Does she have to use vacation time to stay home when sick? How much vacation time does she have?
user-extended
I'm not American, thus, using vacation time as sick leave is illegal. However, what really aggravates the crust of all of this for me is the fact that my manager would be 100% ok if she asked him if she could WFH while she's sick -he's allowed other people to do this before, but nobody is gonna force her to.
runjake
It annoys me, too.

But you need to realize that, unless you work at some place special, in your company's eyes deadlines still need to be met, and taking sick leave is frowned upon.

In fact, taking too much sick leave can hurt your career. Many HR departments have a system that flags employees for sick leave "abuse". Our latest version of that software is enhanced with "advanced AI", so you know it's gotta be good.

Humans are not reasonable beings. Even you. Even me.

Is it right or healthy? That's definitely up for debate.

[dead] monero-xmr
[flagged]
MobiusHorizons
In many businesses, the single largest limiting factor on productivity is the cost of coordinating with others. It’s possible you have been shielded from this by managers who do that work and give you deliverables you can work towards on your own. But for anyone actually involved in communication heavy work where you have to get everyone on the same page, high bandwidth communication (in person being the highest) is just so much more effective.

Humans aren’t actually that great at working together as the group size scales. It’s a lot like a distributed system that runs over faulty networks, and even worse is not always aware when communication has failed.

monero-xmr
100% disagree but the market will decide whose right
082349872349872
Note that all my white-collar jobs with offices had actual offices, with closable doors and sometimes even openable windows. YMMV.

Edit: admittedly, as a student, I had one summer job with a cubicle. but other summer jobs had offices!

user-extended
Yeah, those are reserved for the managers and important people whose business is not to be disturbed at my company.
[dead] blitzar
[flagged]
papito
Risking your health when there is clearly a way not to should not be a requirement. This is not a competition on who can take more damage to their body.
blitzar
Sitting at a desk is horrifically bad for your health - 8 hours staring at a screen likewise.
[dead] vinyl7
[flagged]
user-extended
It's not only about health, it's also about being forced to listen to someone cough at least 400 times a day. I'm not as productive as I would be otherwise, simply put.
briga
That’s literally how it’s been for pretty much all of human history, if you’re expecting human nature to change now you’re looking at an uphill battle. You’re welcome to keep wearing your mask, no one is going to stop you.

I would question the premise that the solution is for everyone to always mask up and never be exposed to viruses. Our immune systems are supposed to be exposed to viruses, that’s how they get stronger. Like anything else in the body it weakens if not exercised

jrexilius
Have you considered that your reaction may be out of sync with the rest of the adult world that worked pre-covid? Your fear is likely a hieghtened reaction due to your life stage development at the time of a pandemic. Coming of age during something as life altering, albeit temporarily, as the COVID lock downs will have a more dramatic impact on your world view than those who grew up prior to it.
scop
This is a 100% honest question and is not meant to be antagonizing or mean spirited:

At what point would you cease being “fully masked up”? What data or authority would you need?

user-extended
Honestly, that's a really good question. I didn't mask up for the last 5 months. However, after seeing COVID incident rates and such for my region, I decided to it again.

So I guess low COVID transmission rates, i.e. the R0 number.

[dead] thealchemistdev
[flagged]
b215826
> start a blog using these instructions as a guide

How does starting a blog solve OP's problems? And why should it be self hosted?

thealchemistdev
TBH; This is low-quality post. If I wanted to read about someone complaining about people and work, I'd go to a subreddit. I come here for tech news.

I would never discourage anyone from creativity, and since OP felt the need to broadcast what I would consider to be trivial matter; I decided to hint at his alternative options.

Everyone should self-host or at least find a Trusted Tech to do it for them for money or "pizza". Because if your service provider decides to close your account, (and I think we've seen enough examples this decade) you should be able to move on and get back up and running as soon as possible.

Always own your content and platform.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220610050612/http://www.always...

b215826
Thanks for the explanation. Interesting link too.
irrational
I, personally, agree with you. If you are sick, stay home. And nobody should have to use vacation time to stay home sick. Will some people abuse this to stay home when not sick? Absolutely. Let them stay home anyway. Better than getting the whole office sick. Also, you should be able to stay home if any family members are sick. Keep those sick kids out of school! Hopefully your work is such that you can work from home. Otherwise, better to be home than in the office getting other people sick.
papito
I think it should be normal and expected behavior to wear a mask when you are in public but even feel a little off.

Way before the pandemic I would nudge away from people non-stop coughing on public transportation - even then it was considered rude to be spraying your aerosol around people going to their places of work.

I realize some people don't even have a choice of calling in sick, and while in the past wearing a mask would get you double-takes (what are you, a surgeon?), there is absolutely no excuse to not do so now. If you HAVE to enter public places while under the weather, wear a frigging face muzzler.