So I have a lethal allergy to lavender which I know is a rare and odd allergy to have, but it is what it is. We sell earl grey tea at work which has lavender in it, and almost everyone on the crew is super good about making sure I’m in the back and far away from the tea bags whenever they have to make a drink with the earl grey. They make sure everything is cleaned and sanitized and that whatever trash can they throw away the tea bags and wrappers in gets tied off and taken outside immediately, and they won’t let me back up front until the air has cleared.
One specific coworker doesn’t seem to understand the concept of a lethal allergy, though. We had a mini meeting last night with just a small number of employees, and this specific coworker decided to order an earl grey tea, not tell me, and then sit right next to me. Thank god one of my other coworkers called it out immediately so I could move further away.
Now, you would think that after hearing that your drink could kill someone sitting near you, that you’d do something to close off the drink or go dump it out and get a new one before you leave or literally anything that would keep the person safe. But no, they continued to drink their tea, even taking the lid off at one point to which everyone in the store was like “dude wtf are you doing”.
I sat as far away as I could and covered my mouth and nose so as not to inhale the lavender, but not even 10 minutes into the meeting my skin was crawling and itching all over, my eyes were watering, my nose was running, my throat and mouth were dry and itchy, and I could feel my chest and throat tightening. I had to get up and run to the back to take an allergy pill, drink water, use my inhaler, and ready my epipen if it got worse. They could hear me coughing from the front of house, trying just to fucking breathe.
And this bitch just kept on sipping on their tea like they didn’t just almost kill me. Allergies aren’t a fucking joke, and if you are aware of someone’s allergies and know that you are the reason they’re having a reaction but still choose not to do anything about it or acknowledge it, you are an asshole.
One of my other coworkers literally had to come into the back just to make sure I wasn’t about to go into anaphylaxis and even had their phone ready to call an ambulance if needed.
Be a decent fucking human being, and be mindful of not fucking killing your coworkers.
