Daycare Employee Told To Come Into Work Despite Having Pink Eye — 'You Can Control It By Washing Your Hands'
Washing your hands does not cure pink eye.
BGStock72 | Canva Pro Daycares are notoriously thought of as germ factories, mostly because little kids spread illness to each other with vigor. Generally, however, it's not the teachers and administrators who are accused of spreading sickness to the kids.
That was not the case for a daycare worker on Reddit who tried to take some time off to recover from pink eye. Her boss actually instructed her that she was required to show up for her shift despite how contagious she was.
The woman’s boss told her that she could not take a sick day at the daycare center despite having pink eye.
The employee shared the alarming text message exchange between herself and her boss on the subreddit r/antiwork. She started by apologizing for the late notice and then reported that she had been experiencing irritation in one of her eyes over the last day.
Reddit
“I believe I have contracted pink eye,” she wrote. “I will check how my eye is doing in the morning but currently I am experiencing some heavy symptoms.”
While the woman’s message was intended as a heads-up that she would be unable to make it to work the following day, that was not how her boss perceived it.
“Luckily you’re able to work with pink eye as you can control yourself by not touching it and washing your hands,” the boss responded.
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Given that the woman worked in childcare and pink eye is a contagious illness, most people were flabbergasted that she was still expected to work.
“You might be better at not touching your eye or washing your hands afterward, but what about the children? Pink eye can spread so rapidly in a daycare,” one Redditor commented. “One day at work I saw ten kids with pink eye and they were all in the same daycare.”
“Pink eye is extremely contagious, and you absolutely should not be working while you have it, especially at a daycare. Your boss is incredibly irresponsible for implying that you should come to work,” another wrote.
According to the CDC, those suffering from pink eye are advised to avoid close contact with anyone and stay home if possible until they seek treatment and their symptoms have improved.
It is highly contagious and spread via the eye discharge of infected individuals.
This discharge can easily travel onto direct surfaces, and anyone who touches them and proceeds to rub their eyes is more than likely to contract it themselves.
In a setting like a daycare center where children cannot seem to keep their hands off of anything or out of their mouths and eyes, the spread of pink eye is inevitable, even if just one person has it.
Additionally, working at a daycare center requires the use of your hands, and it is impossible not to touch anything or spend every five minutes washing up. If you’ve already been infected with pink eye, washing your hands won’t do much.
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If the woman’s boss truly wanted to do their job and protect the children, they should have advised the woman to stay home until she sought treatment and her symptoms had resolved.
It is not worth spreading pink eye to a bunch of children and forcing them to deal with the painful, irritating, and rather disgusting symptoms, passing the illness on to their families.
There is already enough illness that spreads like wildfire in childcare centers. Let’s keep the sick employees at home to get a grip on the situation!
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.