I AM NOT A LEPER!

[Imogene]

It's do to my sneezes equating to hurricane force winds.

I'm fairly sure all sneezes leave the mouth at hurricane speeds... At least, that's what this one video said... I haven't checked Snopes on it yet, so, I dunno...

[CorDarei]

I have bronchitis....

i'll just stop the quote there.

I guess i'm a sucky one, because i don't like it when i get sick from other people being inconsiderate and working when they're sick. Plus, bronchitis is very contagious the last time i checked. Mebbe i've been coddled for the past few years, but if your job doesn't allow you to take sick days... i think that's just plain wrong.

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.'

and if a server said that to me, i wouldn't eat there.

It's similar to this one time i went to a fast food restaurant. bro goes into bathroom. realizes there isn't any soap in the dispenser... we leave. haven't eaten there since. If places of business can't keep things sanatized, why eat there?

That is so true. XD I'm recovering from a very unpleasant chest infection at the moment

and i remember that thread correctly, you lied to the customer and said you didn't smoke....

to wrap it up, i don't think that customers are being sucky when they show concern for their health when they're being helped by someone who is sick.

[Sylvia727]

i don't think that customers are being sucky when they show concern for their health when they're being helped by someone who is sick.

Well, no, of course not. No one likes to be sick. But we encounter so many germs each day that is ridiculous to behave like some of these customers did. If my cashier is coughing, I'll discretely wash off with some Germ-X afterwards, but I won't accuse her of trying to poison me with her evil germs. Cash passes through an average of what, 20 different people before it gets to you? Maybe this is just my large-Midwestern-family bias shining through, but seriously, customers, get a grip! Take some responsibility for your own health instead of passing the buck!

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!

My gut response to that is "You have cancer? Dear God, get away from me, I don't want your germs!" And of course my second thought is how horrible I am for thinking that, because if she does have cancer it's not funny to mock her illness. But if you have cancer and even a little cough could kill you, then don't go out! It's not a hard concept. Paging Dr. Darwin. Dr. Darwin, to ShadedWings' store.

[GingerBiscuit]

i'll just stop the quote there.

I guess i'm a sucky one, because i don't like it when i get sick from other people being inconsiderate and working when they're sick. Plus, bronchitis is very contagious the last time i checked. Mebbe i've been coddled for the past few years, but if your job doesn't allow you to take sick days... i think that's just plain wrong.





and if a server said that to me, i wouldn't eat there.

Well, as I don't work in a restaurant, that's not a problem. And yes, not paying sick pay is unfair, but is also, in most countries, legal to a certain extent. Most big company retail places aren't going to give you much more than they have to by law, so what is being upset with the staff member who has to come in when unwell or they don't get paid going to achieve, really?

to wrap it up, i don't think that customers are being sucky when they show concern for their health when they're being helped by someone who is sick.

Neither do I, but behaving poorly to staff who have little choice about whether they come in or not (choice- come in when ill, feel like crap, but get paid and get to do stuff like pay rent and eat food) or not (get boss and colleagues being pissed off when you left them short staffed, not getting paid, being bored by daytime TV quite rapidly). I'm full time, I have to be off for four days before I get paid. Recently I had a sick day because I was passing out and couldn't physically stand. £50, before tax (around $100) down the drain. I am not going to lose that money on something as minor as a cough or cold.
There is also the little fact that people like to forget. Once the symptoms show, in most illnesses (stomach bugs notwithstanding) the infectious phase has passed. The point they infected you was when they felt alright and had no idea the bug was attacking thier system. You are also more likely to catch something from the crud on money then someone who serves you for maybe five minutes. So no, being concerned about your health and not wanting to catch someone off something who is ill is not sucky, being unpleasant to someone who already feels like death warmed up and can't help the situation they're in- sucky.

And if you don't want people to work when they're ill, lobby your local political representative for changes to the laws that make them.

[pyxee]

Sometimes in cases like these I almost wonder if we should emulate countries like Japan. When you get sick there you wear a mask so that you can't spread germs.
On another note, I would much rather have a customer recoil in horror than the guy that I had one morning when I had a cough so severe that it caused my nose to bleed everywhere. I wrote about him another thread somewhere around here, but basically he did not care and just wanted more and more lottery tickets.

[rerant]

i'll just stop the quote there.

I guess i'm a sucky one, because i don't like it when i get sick from other people being inconsiderate and working when they're sick. Plus, bronchitis is very contagious the last time i checked. Mebbe i've been coddled for the past few years, but if your job doesn't allow you to take sick days... i think that's just plain wrong.

I'm going to sound like a bitch but... would you like to pay my bills and college tuition, or point me in the direction of someone who would?
I don't get sick days, and I simply can't afford not to work.
I'm not being inconsiderate by working while I'm sick, since I'm making every effort to be as germ-free as possible when I'm in contact with other people.
I get that people don't want to get sick, but I also don't want any calls from bill collectors.
It really does suck for people if they catch what I have, but in all honesty I'm doing everything I can to prevent that. And even in spite of that I really don't think my being ill gives anyone a free pass to treat me poorly. It's not our faults when we get sick and not everyone has the option of walking away from their jobs for a week at regular pay.

Maybe this is just my large-Midwestern-family bias shining through, but seriously, customers, get a grip! Take some responsibility for your own health instead of passing the buck!

This reminds me of the George Carlin bit where he's complaining about people who are so obsessed with being free of germs. I'm too lazy to open my iTunes to get the exact quote, but he references the fact that your immune system needs germs to practice on otherwise it'll be useless when it comes to fighting off a real infection.
Of course his delivery is much more hilarious than mine.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Agreed. And yes, I do smoke; but not when I'm sick and you'd honestly have to be a 100 a day smoker to cough the way I do with a chest infection so the customer's bitchery was uncalled for. Going into work with a chest infection is a pain, but then, so is not being able to eat, pay rent or pay for such mundane stuff as water and electricity. Unless you want to subsidise me for the several chest infections that I and my weak chest garner each year, then just leave it. And think of all the people who've touched your fresh produce, coins, trolley and basket before you go yelling at the poor sick cashier.

[Despina83]

When I get colds I'm down for a week or more.

Whenever I get a cold, it stays for TWO WEEKS. I caught four or five of them in 2007 alone.

[PorkChop]

Last winter, I had laryngitits. It was so bad that I did not have a voice left. I was working a grave yard shift, alone, on a Saturday night and it was busy as hell. People were expecting me to talk and make conversation and I had to write out that I had larygitis. Some people thought I was deaf! I had enough of trying to explain of my condition so I just made a note and placed it on the counter for people to read saying that I had no voice and don't expect me to talk. It just had be my luck that I had no voice on a work day on a busy Saturday night!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

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

ah,ah,ah...ah...CHOOOOOOO!

I liked the episode where Sneezer ate his limburger cheese lunch and then practiced his trumpet. Smelled and sounded like a fart to everybody in the cafeteria!

[worddork]

As a sub, I was constantly get sick my first year. At one time I caught something called fifth's disease (nasty fever, red rash and joint pain), which left me only to my sixth bout with strep throat that year. At first I thought the sore scrachty throat was left over from the fifth's so I went back to work. It wasn't until I was yelling over the vioces of 35 sixth graders, trying to be heard that I realized I had something mor than a sore throat. I was in mid-yell, when I was forced to stop talking due to the taste of blood in my mouth. In fact I'm almost sure my exact words were "....IF I HAVE TO RASIE MY VOICE THIS HIGH AGI--- I taste blood."

Needless to say that got the class real quiet, real fast.

[chainedbarista]

i have issues with allergies and my sinuses acting up at work (i'm not the only person there who has this problem), and this winter was especially hellish for all of us, illnesswise; i'd had a nasty cough with occasional bouts of losing my voice, so i'd snarkily tell people not to worry, that it was only a mild case of the plague, nothing to get worried about.

most of them laughed, not one complained.

[Amethyst Hunter]

"Endangering her life with my unknown illness," and complained to a manager saying I was a threat to the health of the customers.

"Lady, that's not 'endangering your life.'" *wraps hands tightly around neck of SC and squeezing* "THIS is 'endangering your life'!!"

Or:

"My illness may be unknown, but sadly for you, I can see that it's clear you have a terminal case of Assholeitis. You've already displayed the classic symptom of permanent stupidity. Please step this way into the and allow me to put you out of my misery."

[Liminality]

The lady in the OP's story could've had a disease which greatly effects her immune system, thus making a simple cold possibly lethal. What she's doing outside in that case is an entirely different matter ... Just thought I'd throw that thought out there.

[retaildrone]

ah,ah,ah...ah...CHOOOOOOO!

I liked the episode where Sneezer ate his limburger cheese lunch and then practiced his trumpet. Smelled and sounded like a fart to everybody in the cafeteria!

I do not recall that one. Sounds funny!

Oh how I miss the GOOD cartoons! Seriously what genius took Animanics off of the air!

Good thing I found some things on youtube. I have this one stuck in my head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDtdQ8bTvRc