Mystery workplace allergy cured by working from home

indeed.
simply gaze upon it

10 Likes

I haven’t worked in an office in a long time, but I can remember seeing these in places that I’ve had to go. The last company where I worked rather than the spray things in the john, they had those odor neutralizing drip system things that went into the water in the stalls. Their effectiveness was tested greatly in the hour or so right after when people came back from lunch…

2 Likes

^This. We had a coworker that not only came to work ill, she pretty much refused to wash her hands after using the toilet. :nauseated_face: She finally retired, so we’ll all be a bit healthier when most people are expected to return to the building.

8 Likes

In what was kind of a reverse of that, at a recurring temp job I had the experience of hearing a co-worker rather loudly complain to the supervisor about “people coming to work sick and making the rest of us sick”, and realized that he was pointedly looking at me! I had to explain to them that I had a Mystery Workplace Allergy—every day, I was fine until I got to work, and then within a few minutes of being there I was sneezing, wheezing, and coughing. Not to mention that my skin would itch wherever it was exposed to the air.

I never did figure out exactly what was causing it there. A co-worker’s perfume or hair-care products? Another co-worker’s strongly-fragranced laundry products? The cleaning solution used to mop the floors in the building? The various goods we were handling and shipping? Any of those could have been it, or all. Or something else entirely.

The company moved to the suburbs, which forced my “retirement” from that particular job. I had enjoyed the work, and they’d had me back again and again for multiple temporary stints, but it was a relief for it to be over.

7 Likes

When the station at the South Pole reopens for the first of the summer crew the winter-over crew invariably comes down with the crud. Sometimes it’s just other people and their germs. Several friends have had health issues related to the buildings they worked in. I noticed a huge reduction in long-term irritative coughs once I stopped making bread 6 nights a week, thus reducing my exposure to fine particulates.

5 Likes

How to say…COVID worked it’s way through my floor before it was “here”. Multiple people got sick, my bosses boss is lucky to have survived it, but this one woman was the catalyst. I don’t know if I carried it home or if Mr. or Jr. Kidd brought it home, they got sick, I didn’t. (Jr. Kidd was confirmed by blood test 4 months after clearing the virus.)

I am relieved she will no longer be putting my family at risk for exciting viruses such as noro- and entero-. :frowning_with_open_mouth:

6 Likes

Bless you all. Healthiest time in my life was when I was unemployed and living in a pickup truck topper. I sold at a flea market and kept a separate trailer for merchandise so I could absolutely control what came into my tiny living space.

So I found a temp Xmas job and someone brought in a virus, natch.

The EPA, which keeps a watch over cleaning chemicals, does not control air fresheners. Many companies will not release the names of ingredients. If you can get those names, look them up in a MSDS/Materials Safety Data Sheet compendium.

This still does nothing for bosses who believe that it’s cheaper to fire the bearer of bad news than to call in a duct work cleaning firm.

2 Likes

Nope. That’s a false dawn, I’m afraid. Your symptoms may be briefly in remission, but I’ve found it’s ultimately incurable.

2 Likes

Yes—to be clear, I didn’t mean to suggest that your co-worker had allergies, just that your comment triggered the memory of my own situation which was something of the reverse, where what I actually had was allergies.

It seems like every workplace has at least one worrisome co-worker who is less-than-sanitary and not considerate at all, and yours sounds like a real doozy. It is definitely a relief to all when some co-workers retire!

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.