Co-workers with allergies?

What about visitors? Surely customers, consultants, inspectors, contractors, salespeople, etc. all frequently visit the plant, no?
As for the email, what if your kinda allergic to or don't read all of your email? Was a confirmation of receipt required?

 

if there is zero common chemistry between a real strawberry and a strawberry scented lotion i just don get it

 

The coworker might have actually triggered it themselves with real fruit for some unknown reason. There are many possible reasons why one might do such a thing.

 

When the owner is off in the bathroom, grab his keys and sneak outside and install a dash cam and pour some of this in the fuel tank of his car. Sit back and see what ensues...



Joking aside, no doubt the the guy has a rough go in life with that peculiar allergy.

 

Besides everything going on in this thread, I'm now very curious about this product in general haha

 

I’m really glad you’ve found a way to deal with your allergy and continue to do what you love. I’m glad nobody forces you to eat something you’re allergic to. You are aware of YOUR allergy and live with it. Do you insist no one else around you eat fish?

I don’t believe I ever said that I’d rub a strawberry on the guy, but if I pack a yogurt with strawberry at the bottom I’m still going to eat it. Probably not sitting next to the guy, but still going to eat it.
Same for peanut allergies, not going to sneak peanuts into someone’s food or anything.
My son had a friend with peanut allergies, when he’d come over I was hyper aware of it and made sure nothing was cross contaminated with peanuts.
As an adult, I think it’s on the person with the allergy to be aware of it and act accordingly for themselves.
Again, bees are flying death, I live my life with the awareness of MY allergy.

I’m definitely not a “tough guy” but I’m not responsible for you. You are. I don’t think me or anyone else here would knowingly expose someone to something.

 

We catered lunch to a customers office and got reprimanded for having a few sandwiches with bacon in them. One of the staff members doesn’t eat pork for religious reasons, so no food with pork can be in the building for others. I was like, OK.

 

My daughter won't eat pork just cuz. However, I grind fresh beef with bacon mixed in and grill burgers only to be told "Mmm, this is sooo good!" Ha!

 

we don't manage by exception.

it's bad for business.

we will make a "reasonable accommodation".

First words that came to mind after reading the initial post is >> attention whore.

Life is tough. adapt. improvise.

Am I a nice guy? yes, i am.

I refuse to let 1 person ruin a business flow that would affect numerous folks income.

I would rather remove the problem.

y'all can be compassionate & all...right up until you have to take a pay cut...right?

 

That’s the key right there, “reasonable accommodation”. Doesn’t mean everything will be reasonably able to be accommodated for everyone. Sometimes, it just won’t fit. Sorry.

 

the shameful part of all this is:

We have to make a "reasonable accommodation" in order to avoid being sued.


and we document the reasonable accommodation thoroughly.

otherwise the "princess" will sue and probably win.


said another way - having purple hair does not make you special or exceptional.

 

We have close family friends with a 17 yo daughter who has allergies. I sympathize with her deeply. Peanut, tree nut, dairy. Has to plan and pick restaurants carefully and ask a long list of questions of any place they go to eat on the spur of the moment. Otherwise the reactions are very real.

We were all on vacation one day and I was starving when everybody finally got around to a consensus that it was time to eat (which is why I hate vacationing in large groups) and it was only then that they started the process of vetting restaurants. I was getting furiously hangry going location to location watching Dad rattle off his questions but stifled it because I knew the poor girl was feeling bad. If we rent a house we cannot have anything in the house that might trigger it and I have to make sure not to slip up and do somethiny dumb like let my 8 yr old bring reeces peanut butter cups or something like that. Has the Epipen next to her on the restaurant table.

Most of the time it goes better as Mom goes online and maps out allergy friendly restaurants so we know where we're going. But it is a process to go away with them. Love them dearly but don't look forward to all those complications. She's off to college next year. No idea how she'll deal with it. Not just food, but being around people who have things that could trigger a reaction if she comes in contact with it. Yes, even touching oils and residues can give her issues.

 

This is the initial message that was sent out.



We later had our Supervisor going into more detail about how we are expected to not bring anything with strawberries in it into the building. I went into the cafeteria and counted 12 products that either contained real strawberries, or had strawberry flavoring that our food vendor was selling. If the company truly was concerned, they would tell the vendor to stop selling Strawberry pop tarts, yogurt parfaits with fresh strawberries, strawberry Starburst, etc, etc.

 

Seems to me your coworker is actually allergic to the idea and concept of strawberries, rather than the fruit or chemical compound that makes artificial strawberries.

How do they feel about the sight of a strawberry? Does that cause a reaction. What about the sound of a strawberry?

 

What if there was an employee allergic to oranges, another to apples, another to fish, another to beef, another to plum jam, grape jelly, grapes, kale, wheat, cheese, mayo, tomato.Let's get real here. Accommodation for all? Absurdity abounds it seems.

 

Satire or no, I can get behind this concept. -not that anyone is being asked to diagnose this individual- I would wager that the allergy to strawberries is very real. Probably had some pretty rough, anaphylactic, life threatening reactions. Now the scent, sight, thought of said strawberry causes severe anxiety for this person.
Anxiety and panic attacks can present very much the same way. But Anxiety does not = Allergy. Person needs to seek care from a Dr. that deals with problems between the ears while avoiding real strawberries. A lil bit of Xanax in the pocket probably could have shut down that reaction to the lotion.

 

I think the bleeding hearts might be onto something in thinking that accommodation is the answer. How about the individual with the problem take some personal responsibility for their predicament and accommodate literally everyone else who works there by proactively taking steps to reduce his own exposure? I have things that I cannot tolerate so I go out of my way to not put others out as a result of my condition. The only thing I expect of others is honest answers when I ask if those things will be present, and I plan accordingly.

Personal responsibility is lost these days. Nobody owns their issues. It's always somebody else's fault. Why you ask? Because if it's somebody else's fault they can expect somebody else to fix it instead of having to be a responsible adult and handling it themselves.

 

You're a Meanie.

 

Preach!


See, in my business, we have no room for soft people. If an episode like this happened on one of our emergencies (blowout), folks get hurt or worse.

in this day and age of “everyone is special “, we sacrifice the livelihood of the team.

this bullshit only happens to environments that allow it.

 

I've been called worse, and these days that kind of label is a merit badge of a bare minimum capable citizen. I'll take it.

 

My 5 year old nephew is the same, they bring his own food to each restaurant. Each and everything he eats is researched and planned. He washes his hands, doesn’t touch his face, and we wall wash our hands. It’s a way of life, and he has hard days, and of course I worry about him especially as he gets older. But it is manageable. It honestly doesn’t affect our plans or places we go out to eat. Of course he has special restaurants he can eat at, and he freaking loves it. But it doesn’t have to necessarily affect everyone around him.

 

This is it. Just general common sense and awareness when interacting with someone with extreme allergies.

Im also allergic to bees, I work and am outside all day. I barely ever have my pen with me and it wouldn’t matter mines 8 years expired haha I should probably look into that

 

i wonder just how accommodating are they are to their employees, because i’m allergic to work.

 

This whole thing is just starting to sound like bad decision making on the leaderships part. They are asking all of you to change your routines, but they aren’t doing it themselves?!
No. This is clearly a big mess of missing information and someone making demands that are ineffective.
Feeling sorry for both you and your coworkers. Sounds like you should all get together and speak up about what is fair for everyone. I hope your company is the type that welcomes that kind of feedback from employees. Sounds to me like they are just trying to not get sued.

 

Wow, that's a big difference in tone since you blamed all the detractors of this story here of being every bad name you could possibly think of, what's changed?

 

My original “tone” was entirely directed at people that make assumptions about others and inject their own opinion into something they might not fully understand. That kind of thing becomes dangerous and oppressive in society.
What’s right is right though, and you have to be flexible to the situation vs your beliefs in order to make sure everyone is treated fairly.
We have to take care of each other, and we can only do that when we are really honest. Part of that honesty is being able to admit when you’re wrong. I still stand by what I said before, but given this new set of facts I see that the problem is coming from somewhere else.

 

So you didn't make assumptions and inject your own personal opinion into something you didn't fully understand yourself, but its different for everyone else for some reason? Sounds pretty dangerous and oppressive, no?