People in my office trying to get me sick

[Margie122 845]

We have a PTO (paid time off) bank here and unfortunately for newcomers (like me) we don't earn PTO at the same rate as the others. I am trying VERY HARD to save 2 weeks of PTO to go into 2017. We get our PTO in increments every 2 weeks, so I "earn" 5.769 hours of PTO every two weeks.

What stinks is that most of the people in my company have worked here a really long time and are earning at least 8 if not 10 hours every two weeks so they do not have the same "PTO" crunch I do.

Anyway, for the last week I've been LYSOL'ing my cubicle and making sure I wash my hands frequently because SO MANY PEOPLE ARE COMING IN SICK! They or someone in their family has the flu. Someone actually posted this on FB this morning "Not sure we'll be able to make Good Friday service this year as everyone in my house has the flu"...did he stay home? NO! He's here about 10 feet away from me.

My mom had surgery on Monday....the last thing I need is to get sick or get her sick after just having the sleeve. I know these guys/gals have plenty of time to take off so WHY DON'T THEY USE IT!!!! Ahhhgh. I really can't afford to be ill.

Rant over.

[RJC5197 282]

Wear Tyvek suit and gas mask?

Just kidding.

I work around 400+ people and everyone is passing the same bug around. This one is nasty and taking a few weeks to get rid of.

Good Luck

[JamieLogical 8,710]

Take lots of Vitamin C and wash your hands constantly. You may also want to try to get a little extra sleep. Are you on a probiotic? I've heard that can help boost your immune system as well, though I take Vitamin C and a probiotic ever day and still get sick all the time.

[heidikat72 935]

sadly most people are selfish and come to work when sick without any regard to impacting their coworkers (not to mention not realizing they are probably staying sick longer themselves by doing that). you can't force them to stay home. you just have to do everything you can to boost your own immune system. Lysol your area like you said, take likes of Vitamin C - and even the airborne supplement. I think it works great as a preventative, doesn't help much once you've already gotten sick. I keep a supply of it at my desk and when a typhoid mary type comes into work, I start taking it!

Edited March 25, 2016 by heidikat72

[kranky813 477]

@@RJC5197

Don't know if you are into essential oils or not but OnGuard by DoTerra is my best friend!! I diffuse it during the typical "sick seasons" and we seem to get through ok. My daughter even has an autoimmune disorder and we have stayed fairly healthy through the worst of it. I will say that we both have colds right now but everyone at my work is coming down with the terrible flu.

Just my opinion.

[Ronjohn 84]

Does anybody have any research on the Vitamin C effectiveness? My mother in law tried to get me on it a few years back, so I did some research on it. The research at the time indicated that a placebo had almost the same effect as the pill. I would be curious to know if this has changed.

[Christinamo7 4,042]

I don't know about any research but for me personally I have found that taking cod liver oil (capsule) and Vitamin C from rose hips, when my office mates get sick, if they are sick a week - IF I get it I am only sick a day or day and a half. my symptoms are less during that time.