getting sick from the work environment?

Question

i get sick quite often, almost every other week! literally a cold, flu, or just plain sick. the work environment is FREEZING. i have a heater, i wear layers, and i'm still cold. i drink hot teas and coffees. i'm still cold. and one time my boyfriend mentioned that i sometimes smelled like mold when i met him right after work, and then later he said it went away. but that was very distressing to me... how do u find out if there is mold at the workplace?

also, the hot water has been broken for awhile now, is that illegal? it is a typical business building, it is not a crap hole or anything, but that doesn't mean that they may not be maintaining things properly right?

Answer 1

I totally know what you are going through! :-(

I used to have any office but now we all moved into cubicles. My cubicle is DIRECTLY underneath a fan! I had been sick for about three months-all because of this stupid fan. It has been winter here (I'm in Chicago) and I called the facilities management department at my job and complained about being sick everyday because of the fan. It turns out that they didn't have some kind of pipe hooked up correctly to the hot water, so that was why there was cold air being blown out of the fan-DIRECTLY OVER MY FREAKIN' HEAD! Because I complained so much about it (and my coworkers because they were sick of hearing me sneeze, cough and blow my nose every dang day!) they eventually fixed the problem and I am much better now (still a little congested, but that's because they just fixed the darn thing a little over two weeks ago!)

Everyday when I would come to work, I would IMMEDIATELY have to blow my nose. I had been losing my voice, people said I sounded congested, my ears were blocked and I couldn't hear properly and eventually one day I just got so sick that I got the chills and couldn't even come in to work. People would walk by my cubicle and immediately tell me how freezing cold my cubicle was (I used to wear layers of turtlenecks and other sweaters & long johns to stay warm). You have to complain and complain-if you make enough noise, SOMEBODY has to do something! Talk to your manager-make SOMEONE responsible for fixing this situation before it gets worse. And if no one does anything, call your local tv station anonymously....local news stations love doing those "is your workplace making you sick" stories. And usually most places do NOT routinely clean out the mold and/or dust from the vents in the office. :-(

Answer 2

Check with your local health department about possible health hazards. I'm not sure about the mold thing though. Mold typically thrives in moist, but warm conditions, not where it's freezing.

Answer 3

you are working in a very unsafe environment, and yes that is illegal. Talk to your boss about what you're going through maybe something could be done!