sicky, stay away from me

Why do people come to work sick? Or go out in public at all, really? Don't they know there are people with compromised immune systems walking around trying to get through each day without catching their terrible diseases?

I work in an office. An office, where I come into contact with 30 co-workers and potentially hundreds of students (college campus) on a daily basis.  Thankfully, I have some say over the number of students I speak to. I am in a position that allows me to hide in my office, only exposed to 1 other person for the majority of the day. 

However, those 30 co-workers I mentioned, come in an out of my workspace unannounced at any given moment during the day.  And lately, they've been coming in sick. One by one they show up to work snot-nosed, stuffed up, and spewing their germs all over me with their nasty coughs.  I can't help but glare behind their backs and passive-aggressively mumble things like, "are you trying to kill my baby on purpose? do you want me to catch pneumonia and end up in the hospital?"

I even surprised myself the other day by telling one of those co-workers (actually my boss' boss) not to come into work if he was sick, because I could die. (He had emailed saying he was coming in late, waiting for his cough medicine to kick in.) Did he listen? Nope.  (This interaction was the first sign I've seen of my turning into my mother. She has never had a problem lecturing strangers.  It's not good. There are many stories I could tell, but I'll save those for another time.)

I guess it's one of those things no one ever tells you.  Pregnant women can catch your annoying cold, except that in the body of a pregnant woman that merely annoying cold will turn into something crazy that leaves them bed-ridden and lasts for weeks. Let's not even talk about the flu. That beast is scary and could do serious damage to someone growing a child inside of them, and the child itself. 

Let's remember this little sign, shall we? Not just for when we know someone who's pregnant.  No one wants your germs, people.  Ever.

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