Pet Peeve

There are several things that bug me from time to time in the work place, but I have to say that I think I have one number-one pet peeve that trumps them all: people who come to work sick. And I mean really sick. People who could barely roll out of bed, but somehow decided it was okay to come to work and spread their germs around to all their coworkers. In some bizarre pseudo-loyalty to the job, they refuse to take a sick day because of the chaos it might cause for their measly selves to not show up for one day, or two, while they wait for the worst of it to pass. Never seeming to realize that the potential of getting all their coworkers sick would cause a great deal more chaos, with the potential for them to have to take sick leave and also with the effects falling ill could have on their home lives.

Today, for example, a coworker who works for the bookstore was helping stock the shelves. She walked over to the desk and grumbled stuffily, "I have a sinus infection and two ear infections." My coworker in the bookstore that day, her cousin, proceeded with my other second-place pet peeve: sympathizing with them for having to be at work in such a state. [WHAT!? They didn't HAVE to come to work!!! That's what SICK LEAVE is for!!!] I said nothing, but backed away and proceeded to have no interaction with this girl, taking note to myself that I ought not go touching the stock today since it was liable to contain the germs from her hands and anything she may have coughed up as she walked around the bookstore. She returned rather quickly to the warehouse. Bullet dodged.

At the end of the day I came downstairs into the bookstore and saw her there again. This time she was behind the desk, "helping" with the closing procedures, putting her germy hands all over everything. I avoided her, and again said nothing to her at all. I put my stuff in a different spot than usual so that she wouldn't come into contact with it. I touched only things that I did not observe her touching (and hoped that she hadn't handled before my arrival).

Go ahead, call me a germaphobe. But keep in mind that I'm having surgery on Tuesday, and if I get sick before then and can't go in, it'll screw up not just my life, but the lives of at least a dozen other people. Also keep in mind that last summer at Sequoia, I was patient number NINE when one of our coworkers decided to come to work sick as a dog and spread that sickness to NINE other coworkers as one by one they all followed suite and chose not to use the sick leave they had stacked away, infecting one coworker after another - and who knows how many visitors! Note also that that sickness stopped when I broke the cycle and chose not to come to work sick. I took at least one sick day - maybe even two. And guess what? Nobody else got that crazy horrible virus after that.

It stands to reason in my mind that only the selfish come to work when they are truly ill, because they don't want to deal with the guilty feeling of calling in sick. Instead they would rather risk infecting their coworkers, their friends, the visiting public, and who knows who else - and never even stop to think that that might be their fault! It is absolutely disgusting to me.

For tonight, I have taken every single immune booster I have in the house. I have been drinking extra water. I have been avoiding sugar. I ate an apple. I will take more immunity-boosting supplements before bed. And in the morning, when I arrive to work in that same space that was this evening occupied and groped over by that sickly foolish girl, I will sanitize the whole workspace as much as I possibly can and use hand sanitizer frequently throughout the day. I will try to be better about not touching my eyes or nose with my hands. I will take more immune-boosting supplements before work, at lunch time, and after work. I will probably not go to the after-party for the derby bout (which I was looking forward to) out of fear that staying up just a hair too late may be what makes me susceptible to this contagion (sleep has proved to have a HUGE role in the strength of my immune system) If there has ever been a time that I can NOT get sick, it's right before this surgery. I don't want anything to mess this up.

I only pray that the sniffling in my nose is still a result of the wildfire smoke in the air, and that the tightness at the back of my throat and the occasional cough is leftover from accidentally inhaling a thick waft of campfire smoke at my evening program last night.