I AM NOT A LEPER!

[rerant]

I have bronchitis.
It's charming because it leaves me sounding like an old man when I cough, which is roughly every 60 seconds or so.
And these aren't just innocent little coughs; they're raging hacks from the deepest reaches of my chest cavity that forces my whole body to sometimes heave forward as though an evil entity was trying to escape through my face.
I keep water handy, cough drops (though they don't really do anything), Purelle to placate the customers when they see me coughing, and tissues.
My register is a certified wellness station. I'm a one woman drug store.

So why the hell did some woman leap, yes LEAP, away from me when one of my coughing fits started, even though I buried my face in my sleeve and took several steps away from everyone around me?

Not only did she jump in horror, she scolded me for, and I quote, "Endangering her life with my unknown illness," and complained to a manager saying I was a threat to the health of the customers.

My manager gave her kind of a, "Are you fucking kidding me?" look, which I could see as this woman made no effort to make her conversation with my manager private.

It's a cough, lady, relax.
Of all the reactions I've gotten to being sick, I've never had someone nearly jump out of their skin and complain about me for "endangering their life".

[TruthHurts]

Awhile ago I posted about a woman who walked by a checkout I was doing. I ended up sneezing and she gave this look of horror and told me not to clean her room. I was sneezing due to the fact I was using Comet not because I was sick.

[ArcticChicken]

Oh, god, I'm so sorry. I HATE bronchitis.

I get colds all the time and while I've never had quite the extreme reaction of that "Lady", one woman told me "I'm not happy that you're working with a cold." Of course, she made no move to do anything about it or prevent me form handling her items very much.

[Trayol]

I often make people jump whenever I sneeze. It's do to my sneezes equating to hurricane force winds. I can't even count the times I've been called Hurricane Trayol.

[CanadaGirl]

Endangering her life? Does she have no immune system??? :|

[retaildrone]

My sneezes are bad, too. Remember little sneezer from the animanics? I resemble him.

[Stormraven]

I've had people call out Richter readings when I sneeze.

[powerboy]

I've had people call out Richter readings when I sneeze.

IS that where you got your name, huh Raven?. I hate it when people act's like it is the end of the world, if I sneeze.

[TheSnakeLady]

When I get colds I'm down for a week or more. One year I got a cold right after having been on vacation. After a week of staying home sick, I finally went in. I was still feeling horrible, but it was better than I -had- been feeling... well anyway, I got sent home rather quickly, and my coworkers bought a bottle of antiviral Lysol just to disinfect the area I had been in, it was that bad. My boss didn't give me a hard time about being out sick after that...

[Primer]

I get colds all the time and while I've never had quite the extreme reaction of that "Lady", one woman told me "I'm not happy that you're working with a cold."

Well, "lady," I'm not too happy about it either. If I could go home, I would.

[ShadedWings]

Bronchitis sucks arse, I've had it twice. I hope you feel better soon! *hugs*

As for customers vs. germs... I've never really had any react to me being sick.. or even notice (which is just wonderful when no one cares that you're coughing out a lung!).

Though, I did have one regular come through my line all the time in the grocery store, she always insisted that there be paper bags set down between her items and the belt, and that I immediately place each item in the bag after scanning, and it couldn't touch the scanner. At first I thought it was weird... but one day got the details from her that her husband is terminally ill and has absolutely no immune system anymore. So, she takes severe precautions against any germs. After that, I always set out bags for her ahead of time, and asked how her husband was doing, and she loved coming to my line. Everyone else thought she was weird as hell, but only because they didn't know why. I didn't have the heart to point out to her that all her groceries were already picked over by hundreds of people before her, and I'd been handling money all day.

On the other end of the customer spectrum, a co-worker of mine got snarled at to "not cough in her direction, because she has cancer and could DIE from the cough!!!"... when all my co-worker did was clear her throat lightly, and wasn't even facing her when she did it. Maybe understandable but a bit of an overreaction!

Anyway, feel better, and I'll send some anti-mucus thoughts your way!

[Shironu-Akaineko]

My sneezes are bad, too. Remember little sneezer from the animanics? I resemble him.

Tiny Toons.

[GingerBiscuit]

I had a mild cold, getting over it and was a bit sniffly. I can't afford to take several days off work just for a cold. We don't get paid sick days unless we are off for more than four days, and then we're losing four days pay.

So I get a customer, as I sniff a little while serving her..
'You sound like you shouldn't be here today.'
I say 'Ah, it's just a cold. I can't afford to chuck a days pay down the drain for a cold.'
'So you're just going to give it to your customers then?'
'Why not, I got it from one.'

[retaildrone]

Tiny Toons.

I am pretty sure that he was on Animaniacs as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li'l_Sneezer

[Lace Neil Singer]

So I get a customer, as I sniff a little while serving her..
'You sound like you shouldn't be here today.'
I say 'Ah, it's just a cold. I can't afford to chuck a days pay down the drain for a cold.'
'So you're just going to give it to your customers then?'
'Why not, I got it from one.'

That is so true. XD I'm recovering from a very unpleasant chest infection at the moment; I have a weak chest so colds always end up as chest infections, and customers either ignore me as I'm coughing my lungs up or they jump back in horror. It's like having bubonic plague. -.- As I said in my thread, I even had someone think my chesty cough was a smoker's cough.