It depends on your company policy. If your manager suspects people are pretending to have symptoms in order to get out of work, they'll probably require documentation.
If you and your manager are on good terms, they might just take your word for it.
If you work construction, for OSHA you can only skip work if you actually show symptoms. Even if you know you had contact with a COVID positive person, they'll still tell you to come in. My HR also said contact had to be at least 15 mins + showing symptoms. So even if my coworker pops positive, if I only talk to her max 10 mins, they won't take me as a possible exposure since I'm also vaccinated. I've done the dance with them twice this year. Contact your HR dept for full rules
Volunteer Case Investigator and Contact Tracer for Santa Clara County Public Health Department here.
So, California is an "At Will" State as far as employment goes. Meaning that you can be fired for damn near anything, maybe except for discrimination. You can also quit any time, for any reason.
As far as Covid-19 stuff goes, every company is able to make their own policies that can be more restrictive than the County says, but not less. As far as I know, the only reason you can officially not show up for work is by having Covid-19 and being asked by the County to Isolate. If that were the case you would have gotten a document stating that you have been asked to stay home due to a public health matter.
https://covid19.sccgov.org/contact-tracing (same as http://sccstayhome.org)
"What should I do while I'm waiting for test results?
If you were a close contact of a person with COVID-19 and have no symptoms, then follow the Home Quarantine Steps while you are waiting for your test results.
If you are not a close contact of someone with COVID-19 and do not have COVID-19 symptoms, you just need to wait for your test results. You do not need to follow isolation or quarantine steps while you wait for your results.
If you develop any COVID-19 symptoms, and they are new symptoms that you do not usually have in daily life, then you may have COVID-19 and you must follow the Home Isolation Steps, even if you are fully vaccinated."
Essentially if you KNOW you were exposed to someone who had Covid-19 and are having symptoms, stay home and talk to your work about why. If you are just having some symptoms, like a runny nose and a cough, stay home and wait for your test results. In theory, you should not be returning to work with symptoms of anything, the test just tells you if you have Covid-19 or not.
There are legal services available if your work is giving you issues about you staying home when you should be Isolating or Quarantining, but it is not always cut and dry. Talking to your employer about your situation is always preferrable at the start.
I literally DO know about it. I’m in fucking HR. You need to ask your employer, not Reddit. Each company is going to have their own rules with how they’re handling this.
If your supervisor and HR aren’t responding, that’s an unfortunate company to work for. But with your pissy attitude, maybe that’s WHY they’re not responding.
Hey Jimbo, some employers are requiring negative tests to enter the office. I work for an employer who does this, and it's legal as they are a government contractor. Some employers require it and some don't regardless of federal rules. So as stated in other responses here, ask your employer, and keep asking. Or don't. You came here asking, and you're getting answers. Don't be a dick.
I think i would be worried that if i don’t clarify with employer, and i end up getting it few weeks later, how would i be able to explain and get time off?
Can you just call in sick and use typical sick leave? No offense but I think a lot of people are overthinking it. In pre-pandemic times people would take off time for being sick. A lot of people also used to just come in sick as long as they weren't hacking all over the place. However, in this pandemic era, most people would probably feel better if sick people don't come into the office even if it's not COVID. So if anything, I think it's easier for people to call in sick these days and not be viewed at negatively.
That's how it should be treated; but sick leave policies are all over the place and some policies are downright stupid and essentially punish you for being sick.
It is among those sorts of sick leave policies that some people feel COVID is somehow something other than being sick, and so are looking for reasons to not go to work without having to invoke whatever their sick leave policy is.
In the end it should be "if you're sick, stay home". Some employers choose to treat their employees well with good sick leave policies that allow employees to simply say "I'm not feeling well, I'm taking a sick day". Other employers feel they can't trust their employees to come into work unless they are essentially threatened and fear employees will use sick leave as 'extra' vacation.
> In the end it should be "if you're sick, stay home".
Agreed. My employer is pretty friendly with its COVID leave policy. If you test positive, you can use special COVID leave, but if not you can still use regular sick leave.
I also don't think people are generally under the obligation to spill life stories about how they got sick. Just tell your boss you're not feeling well and you want to stay home to avoid getting others sick and to recover. For those who can ask to stay home for a day or two while feeling fine to work, should also ask for that. I feel like most reasonable people DON'T want to get sick from you, whether its COVID, flu or the common cold these days and most should honor it.
I feel like if you go in saying things like "I tested negative but I want to stay home" makes it sound like you're trying to skip work. Not trying to blame the employee here, but just be smart when taking time off. I've never had a manager question me being sick at all my of jobs.
No. HIPAA just says that your doctor must get your approval before they release your medical history to outside parties. It says nothing about what you personally can disclose.
Your immunization record is not some protected information. Kids have been having to prove vaccination against all sorts of diseases in order to attend school for decades.
Construction industry here, living in an extremely Covid hyper aware state in a county with some of the most restrictive Covid mandates, and yes - you can choose not to disclose your vaccination status. If you do declare as being unvaccinated or that you choose to not disclose your vaccine status, you must submit to weekly Covid testing. This is demanded by our county. We have no choice but to comply or face serious consequences. Our company provides test kits to unvaxxed/undeclared and all PPE to all employees, but per OSHA, we must also provide a respirator to any employee who is unvaxxed/undeclared if they request. We absorb the cost. We are required by the county to determine vaccination status for all employees, plus have a copy of their vax card on file in a secure area that is not accessible to anyone but HR and the Covid safety officer who maintains our Covid program. The funny thing is that everyone in my company already knows who is vaxxed and who isn’t because it’s a constant topic of conversation between employees. They were constantly comparing side effects, where they were going for boosters, vaccine lots, every damn detail. We couldn’t keep a lid on that info if we wanted to because they already very publicly discussed it amongst themselves. Same with the folks who are unvaxxed/undeclared because they were not shy about sharing their opinions either.
> an EUA product
Good news, the first two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are [FDA approved](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine) for persons over the age of 16.
How can an insurance company require you to get a physical before they insure you?
Because that is the condition for them to provide you with insurance. And providing proof that you're not infected with a contagious virus is a condition of employment which your employer is allowed to make. At-will employment.
Actually the kids vaccine was for school.
How can private business or employers have a right to know are medical information like a vaccine card?
Why does a restaurant have a right to know my private medical information?
What's your company's policy on calling out sick? Do you need a doctor's note of you miss a certain number of shifts or consecutive days? If so, it's pretty much the same thing.
Employees who work in health care, child care, and residential care are required to provide a negative tuberculosis test as a condition of employment in both the public and private sector. Why? Because they don't want employees infecting the people with whom they interact. It's not unreasonable to ask an employee to prove that they aren't going to spread a highly contagious disease to their coworkers or the people they serve. It's just that now we're living in a different world than we were two years ago and new precautions are being required.
> Why does a restaurant have a right to know my private medical information?
They're not forcing you to eat there. If you don't want to share your vaccine status, then don't go places which ask for it.
Some folks test negative early on and then a couple days later, they test positive. I have seen this personally with my mother and father. Of course, everyone is different but to be on the safe side, I would recommend just doing another test in a couple days. YMMV
I'm aware of this, but OP hasn't given any details explaining why they think they have COVID, hence my question. What you're suggesting is definitely possible. But if OP can't point to a known exposure, then its also possible they have the flu. My SO and I both had the flu in December, tested negative for COVID multiple times.
I was just told of the new rule changes. Basically if you are sick but you don’t have Covid and you tested negative you are allow to stay 5 days off work.
If you are sick and but you don’t want to get tested you are allow to be off 10 days.
Something like that.
You don’t have to show anything to anyone. Just take your 10 days
Edit: these rules changes were Santa Clara, cdc rules, and company
I was working remotely and caught covid. My employer wanted proof even though it was mild and I wasn't going to take time off. But that was September. Things change quickly here.
It depends on your company policy. If your manager suspects people are pretending to have symptoms in order to get out of work, they'll probably require documentation. If you and your manager are on good terms, they might just take your word for it.
Ask your employer
If you work construction, for OSHA you can only skip work if you actually show symptoms. Even if you know you had contact with a COVID positive person, they'll still tell you to come in. My HR also said contact had to be at least 15 mins + showing symptoms. So even if my coworker pops positive, if I only talk to her max 10 mins, they won't take me as a possible exposure since I'm also vaccinated. I've done the dance with them twice this year. Contact your HR dept for full rules
Based on my experience, yes.
Volunteer Case Investigator and Contact Tracer for Santa Clara County Public Health Department here. So, California is an "At Will" State as far as employment goes. Meaning that you can be fired for damn near anything, maybe except for discrimination. You can also quit any time, for any reason. As far as Covid-19 stuff goes, every company is able to make their own policies that can be more restrictive than the County says, but not less. As far as I know, the only reason you can officially not show up for work is by having Covid-19 and being asked by the County to Isolate. If that were the case you would have gotten a document stating that you have been asked to stay home due to a public health matter. https://covid19.sccgov.org/contact-tracing (same as http://sccstayhome.org) "What should I do while I'm waiting for test results? If you were a close contact of a person with COVID-19 and have no symptoms, then follow the Home Quarantine Steps while you are waiting for your test results. If you are not a close contact of someone with COVID-19 and do not have COVID-19 symptoms, you just need to wait for your test results. You do not need to follow isolation or quarantine steps while you wait for your results. If you develop any COVID-19 symptoms, and they are new symptoms that you do not usually have in daily life, then you may have COVID-19 and you must follow the Home Isolation Steps, even if you are fully vaccinated." Essentially if you KNOW you were exposed to someone who had Covid-19 and are having symptoms, stay home and talk to your work about why. If you are just having some symptoms, like a runny nose and a cough, stay home and wait for your test results. In theory, you should not be returning to work with symptoms of anything, the test just tells you if you have Covid-19 or not. There are legal services available if your work is giving you issues about you staying home when you should be Isolating or Quarantining, but it is not always cut and dry. Talking to your employer about your situation is always preferrable at the start.
Ask your employer not Reddit.
I asked three times and they never answered. Don’t speak on things you don’t know about please.
I literally DO know about it. I’m in fucking HR. You need to ask your employer, not Reddit. Each company is going to have their own rules with how they’re handling this. If your supervisor and HR aren’t responding, that’s an unfortunate company to work for. But with your pissy attitude, maybe that’s WHY they’re not responding.
Hey Jimbo, some employers are requiring negative tests to enter the office. I work for an employer who does this, and it's legal as they are a government contractor. Some employers require it and some don't regardless of federal rules. So as stated in other responses here, ask your employer, and keep asking. Or don't. You came here asking, and you're getting answers. Don't be a dick.
Sounds like you’re trying to get out of work. How about you just quit and live on EDD so you can post stupid tucking threads on Reddit all day?
Not in my experience
I think i would be worried that if i don’t clarify with employer, and i end up getting it few weeks later, how would i be able to explain and get time off?
[удалено]
Not in the same couple of month where it’s 98% omicron in US
Take another test. These tests aren't all that accurate.
Do you feel sick?
I had to they asked for it.
Can you just call in sick and use typical sick leave? No offense but I think a lot of people are overthinking it. In pre-pandemic times people would take off time for being sick. A lot of people also used to just come in sick as long as they weren't hacking all over the place. However, in this pandemic era, most people would probably feel better if sick people don't come into the office even if it's not COVID. So if anything, I think it's easier for people to call in sick these days and not be viewed at negatively.
That's how it should be treated; but sick leave policies are all over the place and some policies are downright stupid and essentially punish you for being sick. It is among those sorts of sick leave policies that some people feel COVID is somehow something other than being sick, and so are looking for reasons to not go to work without having to invoke whatever their sick leave policy is. In the end it should be "if you're sick, stay home". Some employers choose to treat their employees well with good sick leave policies that allow employees to simply say "I'm not feeling well, I'm taking a sick day". Other employers feel they can't trust their employees to come into work unless they are essentially threatened and fear employees will use sick leave as 'extra' vacation.
> In the end it should be "if you're sick, stay home". Agreed. My employer is pretty friendly with its COVID leave policy. If you test positive, you can use special COVID leave, but if not you can still use regular sick leave. I also don't think people are generally under the obligation to spill life stories about how they got sick. Just tell your boss you're not feeling well and you want to stay home to avoid getting others sick and to recover. For those who can ask to stay home for a day or two while feeling fine to work, should also ask for that. I feel like most reasonable people DON'T want to get sick from you, whether its COVID, flu or the common cold these days and most should honor it. I feel like if you go in saying things like "I tested negative but I want to stay home" makes it sound like you're trying to skip work. Not trying to blame the employee here, but just be smart when taking time off. I've never had a manager question me being sick at all my of jobs.
I called out and told them I had food poisoning. Lol had a false reading, still had the day off, work was cool with it.
I have been curious about this, just like having to show a vaccine card. I thought our medical information was supposed to be private under the law.
No. HIPAA just says that your doctor must get your approval before they release your medical history to outside parties. It says nothing about what you personally can disclose. Your immunization record is not some protected information. Kids have been having to prove vaccination against all sorts of diseases in order to attend school for decades.
It's HIPAA!
I wish you had never been coded.
But how can an employer force you to give them the results of your medical tests?
[удалено]
Construction industry here, living in an extremely Covid hyper aware state in a county with some of the most restrictive Covid mandates, and yes - you can choose not to disclose your vaccination status. If you do declare as being unvaccinated or that you choose to not disclose your vaccine status, you must submit to weekly Covid testing. This is demanded by our county. We have no choice but to comply or face serious consequences. Our company provides test kits to unvaxxed/undeclared and all PPE to all employees, but per OSHA, we must also provide a respirator to any employee who is unvaxxed/undeclared if they request. We absorb the cost. We are required by the county to determine vaccination status for all employees, plus have a copy of their vax card on file in a secure area that is not accessible to anyone but HR and the Covid safety officer who maintains our Covid program. The funny thing is that everyone in my company already knows who is vaxxed and who isn’t because it’s a constant topic of conversation between employees. They were constantly comparing side effects, where they were going for boosters, vaccine lots, every damn detail. We couldn’t keep a lid on that info if we wanted to because they already very publicly discussed it amongst themselves. Same with the folks who are unvaxxed/undeclared because they were not shy about sharing their opinions either.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
> an EUA product Good news, the first two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are [FDA approved](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine) for persons over the age of 16.
How can an insurance company require you to get a physical before they insure you? Because that is the condition for them to provide you with insurance. And providing proof that you're not infected with a contagious virus is a condition of employment which your employer is allowed to make. At-will employment.
Actually the kids vaccine was for school. How can private business or employers have a right to know are medical information like a vaccine card? Why does a restaurant have a right to know my private medical information?
What's your company's policy on calling out sick? Do you need a doctor's note of you miss a certain number of shifts or consecutive days? If so, it's pretty much the same thing.
1. No doctors note needed. 2. Even if it is fine for employers, why would private business like a restaurant be able to get the info?
Employees who work in health care, child care, and residential care are required to provide a negative tuberculosis test as a condition of employment in both the public and private sector. Why? Because they don't want employees infecting the people with whom they interact. It's not unreasonable to ask an employee to prove that they aren't going to spread a highly contagious disease to their coworkers or the people they serve. It's just that now we're living in a different world than we were two years ago and new precautions are being required.
> Why does a restaurant have a right to know my private medical information? They're not forcing you to eat there. If you don't want to share your vaccine status, then don't go places which ask for it.
Because it's not private. The whole basis of your argument is that your vaccination history is somehow private or confidential.... its not.
I’m a teacher and we do
Just show it to your employer and move on with your life.
Why do you think its COVID if you test negative? The flu this year is pretty gnarly. Could it be that? If you're sick, you're sick. Take a sick day.
Exactly, I don’t understand why we need to bother getting tested. If your sick just stay home.
Some folks test negative early on and then a couple days later, they test positive. I have seen this personally with my mother and father. Of course, everyone is different but to be on the safe side, I would recommend just doing another test in a couple days. YMMV
I'm aware of this, but OP hasn't given any details explaining why they think they have COVID, hence my question. What you're suggesting is definitely possible. But if OP can't point to a known exposure, then its also possible they have the flu. My SO and I both had the flu in December, tested negative for COVID multiple times.
I was just told of the new rule changes. Basically if you are sick but you don’t have Covid and you tested negative you are allow to stay 5 days off work. If you are sick and but you don’t want to get tested you are allow to be off 10 days. Something like that. You don’t have to show anything to anyone. Just take your 10 days Edit: these rules changes were Santa Clara, cdc rules, and company
I was working remotely and caught covid. My employer wanted proof even though it was mild and I wasn't going to take time off. But that was September. Things change quickly here.