Just so we’re all clear: allergies are nothing to sneeze at. At best, they’re an inconvenience. But at worst? They’re life-threatening. You have to be very sensitive about these things. Even if you’re personally not allergic to anything (we’re jealous), the people around you might be. Imagine for a moment, though, that someone intentionally sets off your allergies. How would you react?
Internet user u/TonightNo4843, who has a serious dairy allergy, shared how he got a fellow intern fired after she allegedly egged him on to try some of the ‘dairy-free’ cupcakes she made for the office. This landed him in the hospital. Check out the full story below. And, to clarify, there is a difference between dairy allergies and lactose intolerance, even if there’s some overlap between the two.
It can be incredibly stressful to work among people who try to undermine you. In some scary cases, it can even be life-threatening
Image credits: Nataliya Vaitkevich/Pexels (not the actual photo)
One young worker shared how he suspects that a colleague of his intentionally ignored his allergies, landing him in the hospital. Here's what happened
Image credits: Michal Hajtas/Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: TonightNo4843
If you have to deal with toxic coworkers every day, you should aim to solve the problem instead of ignoring it
Image credits: Yan Krukau/Pexels (not the actual photo)
To be very clear, you should not—under any circumstances—intentionally try to activate someone’s allergies. It doesn’t matter if you’re envious of them at work or trying to get revenge for their toxic behavior.
You don’t play around with other people’s allergies. This is something you simply don’t do. Not only can you harm their health and threaten their life, but you’re also opening yourself up to a world of pain if they decide to get their lawyers involved.
You could end up getting sued. You can also end up losing your job. That’s on top of the fact that it’s unethical to intentionally harm someone to advance your goals.
If you have a problem with your colleague, be mature and talk to them about it.
Or bring up the issue with your manager or HR if you feel like they’re getting preferential treatment.
However, if your problem is that you’re envious of their results, you might want to do some introspection and dig into the reasons behind your insecurities.
Just because your colleagues are thriving doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful alongside them.
Dairy allergies and lactose intolerance overlap, but they are different things. The former can be life-threatening in some cases
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Minor allergies mean that you might start sneezing, coughing, or get an itchy throat. Major allergic reactions, on the other hand, can land you in the hospital.
Folks who deal with the latter often carry around an epinephrine autoinjector (aka an epi pen), so they can avoid going to the emergency room.
According to WebMD, lactose intolerance is a digestive problem that is more uncomfortable than dangerous. People with this intolerance have trouble digesting lactose, a sugar, because they lack the enzyme lactase.
Meanwhile, a dairy allergy is an immune system problem that can cause serious reactions. These individuals have allergies to the proteins found in dairy foods such as milk.
It’s possible to be both allergic to dairy and lactose intolerant. Both conditions can cause nausea, abdominal cramps, gas, bloating, and diarrhea.
As per the Cleveland Clinic, around 2% of kids in the United States are allergic to milk. If you’re allergic to dairy, you might experience rashes, hives, swelling of the face and lips, wheezing, trouble swallowing, tightness in the throat, etc.
It’s vital that you immediately seek emergency medical help if you have trouble breathing.
What do you think, Pandas? Should the intern feel guilty about his colleague getting fired after the whole allergy drama at work? How would you have solved the tense situation if you were these people’s manager?
If you have allergies, what do you wish everyone knew about your condition, to be more considerate? If you feel like sharing your thoughts, feel free to do so in the comments.
Later, the author shared more context in the comments of his post
Most readers were on the guy's side. Here's their take on the bizarre situation at work
Not everyone was on the same page. Some netizens blamed the author of the post for what happened
