Oklahoma Nesties
fuzzylogic
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Would you be annoyed?
I have a coworker with whom I share a space (it's our office in the back of the school building for the music room) who says she's allergic to me. She went to a long doctor's appointment to find out she has a cat allergy, among other allergies and mild asthma.
So, now she keeps saying she's allergic to me. And I'm getting annoyed by it. Would you? It's not like I can really do anything about it. I'm not getting rid of my cats. Kids spray Axe all in the hallways and I'm allergic to it, but I don't make a big deal, I just avoid it.
For the record, I'm in the office for maybe 30 minutes a day.
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Re: Would you be annoyed?
It's funny that you chose the name Karen because that's the name of a former friend of mine lol.
I wish we could have separate offices, but that's just not possible right now. She's not even in there all day. There's a third person that uses that office! I share my other classroom with another teacher who also has terrible allergies to other things, but luckily, she and I don't appear to be allergic to each other. Ha.
I was thinking about asking her, if she says it again, to please stop saying it as she isn't allergic to me, that she's allergic to cats, and that multiple faculty members and students besides me also own indoor cats, and that being around multiple people might be compounding the allergy. However, I don't know many people that have horribly strong reactions being around people who have cats. I have relatives with strong cat allergies and they do just fine around me!
I would be annoyed as well. I would personally ask her if allergy medication could help and if not, maybe alter times that you all have to share small quarters. Outside of that there is nothing you can do to help.
I also think if asking her in a nice, non confrontational way to cease saying she is allergic to you. Indoor cats are a common staple in many homes, there has to be a an allergy medicine in which she can use.
In the spirit of being passive aggressive, here is what the email said lol.
"Now that I'm near a computer...I slept in Friday, went to a four-hour doctor's appointment that told me that I'm allergic to fuzzylogic and I have mild asthma."
She didn't come to work at all on Friday and then in the email talks about how she wishes she could skip Monday because it's her birthday, but that she'll probably show up to work like always.
Um, yeah, because it's work, and when you don't show up to work, we all have to sub for you! Bah. I'm just annoyed in general with her.
If she says something to my face tomorrow, I'll remind her that she's not allergic to me, that she's allergic to cats, and that there's nothing I can do for her, but that her doctor should have given her something for that if it's so awful. Which I suspect it's not. She hasn't been any more sniffly than the rest of us suffering from the allergens outside and from the wind!
What a drama queen. She is NOT allergic to YOU because you have cats. It is not possible. EVERYONE'S allergies are completely f-ed up right now because of the weather, not to mention the massive wind swirling everything around. Who IS NOT sniffling and carrying on right now?
Of course, I am assuming you are not bringing your cats to work - if you are, in that case, that probably is causing her issues. But to claim her allergies are acting crazy because you have a small amount of cat hair on you is stupid.
Recommend to her taking one Wal-mart brand zyrtec every single night before she goes to bed. I am also allergic to cats - oh!!! I have TWO!!!! Not to mention crazy asthma - I take one Wal-mart zyrtec before I got to bed and I have very few allergy issues.
I am so sorry - YES - I would be annoyed!!! I am annoyed FOR YOU!
This would be hilarious. My students would be so excited if I could bring my cats to work because I talk about them so much. One of our teachers, years ago, got a puppy who was very tiny and she couldn't leave him alone all day, so she just brought him to work for an entire semester. She walked him during passing periods and he was loved by everyone. I love that I work in an environment like that. But no, I'm not rubbing dander in her face. It's practically impossible for her to have allergies because of me.
Now, she does have an allergy to mold...and she has been living in a shithole of a house, and our school building was built in 1923. Do you think possibly THAT might be the problem? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Rub your cats all over your clothes so you're coated in cat hair and see how she reacts to that. Barely a sniffle? You're not the problem.
Well, this is a daily occurrence for me. I feel that nothing in this world can't be solved by a catinalap.
Did you know--cat allergies aren't caused by the hair, but by the dander, which is merely from their saliva and sebaceous glands? The dander itself isn't a problem, it's a glycoprotein that some people are allergic to, and that some cats produce less of it, and unaltered cats produce more! It's an interesting topic, and they don't know everything about it. I do know, though, that I have friends with the allergy and with a simple allergy pill or two, they can hang out in my house with THREE cats for at least a few hours before having major problems. And the cats just LOVE them and rub allllllll over them.
I work in student disability accommodations and faculty/staff go through HR. If she keeps complaining, you might want to tell her that she should check with HR to see what accommodations they could provide her.
We have had a few requests for accommodations based on allergies, and depending on the documentation, severity, and reasonableness we've been able to provide some things but not all. Once we had a request that we ask every student not to wear deodorant/perfumes and provide a personal office space so the student could study while on campus. We were not able to accommodate that. Nor can we stop a random bee sting (another accommodation to get rid of all bees on campus).
And yes, I would be annoyed with her. As you've said, she's not allergic to you.
No HR department--small charter school. We deal with everything internally. She's literally around me a few minutes a day. It can't be me. It has to be the mold in the building, but honestly, she functions just fine. We're all sniffly and sneezy from the crazy pollen outside. There have been days when my face felt like it was melting off because some kid, somewhere in the building decided to smoke pot, to which I am horribly allergic, and while it's uncomfortable and annoying, I find allergy medicine and I'm good to go. I don't blame anyone, it's MY problem! (Yes, I'm overlooking the fact that a kid, somewhere in the building, decided to smoke pot. It happens.)