There are people who don’t have paid sick days and who, indeed, are afraid to stay away from work when they’re sick because they worry about losing their jobs. I get why they go to work even when they really wish they could stay home. And I believe some people have jobs that absolutely require them to show up even when they’re well and truly sick. I am convinced, mind you, that far fewer people fall into this category than think they do. Much as we’d like to believe we’re indispensable, most of us aren’t. As for nearly everybody else, I don’t understand why they don’t stay home until they feel better. I don’t understand why they insist on going out into the world, coughing and sneezing and contagious in the grocery store or on the subway or at work, putting the people around them at risk of catching whatever it is that they have. More than 70 per cent of employees go to work sick at least once a year, according to a 2008 study of more than 12,900 workers by researchers at Herning Hospital in Denmark: They cited having too much to do at work or feeling pressed for time as the main reasons. Others cited job insecurity amid a difficult employment market. Some people go to work when they’re sick because they say they fear being perceived as slackers. Wall Street Journal columnist Sue Shellenbarger cited a three-year study of more than 9,760 Swedish workers in which many said they fear “being judged as fragile or unreliable” if they say they are too ill to work. There are malingerers in every workplace, to be sure. And often they are repeat offenders. But they’re not the colleagues dragging themselves into work with runny noses and hacking coughs. They have no place there. “People get really, really ticked off at co-workers spreading germs in the workplace. There’s nothing worse than being Typhoid Mary,” as Anne Hawley Stevens of ClearRock, a leadership-development and career-transition consultancy in Boston, told Shellenbarger. Bystanders can contract the flu from someone standing even six feet away, Shellenbarger observed, usually via respiratory droplets spread when the sick person coughs, sneezes — or just talks. I am deeply appreciative when colleagues ask me to stand back because they aren’t feeling well. Computer keyboards and doorknobs can be contaminated, as well as grocery carts or automatic teller machines. Aside from the fact that it’s totally inconsiderate to your co-workers to go to work when you’re sick, we all know that you’re not nearly as effective on the job as you are when you’re operating on all cylinders. Shellenbarger cites a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine which found more than two-thirds of all health-related productivity losses were caused, not by sick people missing work, but by employees who have contagious, chronic or other ailments — and who show up and perform poorly. Atlanta pediatrician Jennifer Shu, a CNN Health columnist, advises people who work in close quarters with others to stay home when they’re sick — particularly in the earliest stage of an illness, when we’re the most contagious. It’s also important, she says, for people who handle food or who work with young children, the elderly or people with compromised immune systems not to go to work: Even if we’re not that sick, these groups may develop symptoms that are more severe. If it’s feasible and you’re not completely flattened by what ails you, try to work from home. And if you absolutely have to go to work, wash your hands. Often. Cough or sneeze into a tissue that you in turn discard immediately, and then wash your hands — or else cough or sneeze into the inside of your elbow. And keep your distance from the rest of us. Pushing yourself in the early stages of an illness may prolong recovery time, Shu says. Getting enough sleep, on the other hand, can boost infection-fighting cells and antibodies. Do yourself a favour. Stay home when you’re sick enough that you know you really should. Take it easy. You’ll be doing the rest of us a favour, too.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:49:44 +0000
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