Magic Pot of Jobs

I have returned from a couple of days off due to a nasty cold. I know there are people out there who are thinking, “Pfah! A cold? Get up and go to work anyway, you sissy twit!” In fact, I used to be one of those people. But then I started working in a more people-oriented field, where I’m shaking hands all day, answering my coworkers’ phones, and just generally in close contact with lots of people who are in contact with lots of other people.

I have concluded that it’s a thoughtless and counterproductive workplace culture which demands that employees come to work when their heads feel three feet thick, they’re coughing and sneezing, and carting around a big box of Kleenex. Consider:

• An unchecked cough can turn into bronchitis, leading to even more sick time.
• People’s immune systems vary- an employee who toughs it out and comes to work because “it’s just a little cold” could pass it on to employees with less efficient immune systems, who then can get sinus infections, bronchitis, or any number of other things, leading to yet more lost productivity. Or those people can pass it on to their spouses or children, which can also lead to time taken to care for family members.
• Employees whose bosses take their health seriously and encourage them to rest when they are ill are employees who feel valued, and therefore are more inclined to stay.
• Many occupations allow the employee to accomplish at least SOMETHING at home. If the employee feels well enough to do some work, encourage them to participate in meetings via phone, send emails, or do research while they’re out of the office. If employees are less out of the loop, they’ll feel more comfortable about taking the time they need to get better and won’t be risking their own health and that of others just to slog to the office. Don’t forget to adjust how much sick time they’re charged accordingly- there’s no reason an employee who is working from their couch when they’re sick needs to be charged a whole sick day.

In my office, we actually ban each other from the premises when we’re sick. One of my coworkers doesn’t fight off upper respiratory ailments very well and once had a cold that turned into literally four months of suffering, antibiotics, and repeated doctor visits. So if I get a cold, it’s specifically for her that I don’t go in to the office. I can source candidates from home, after all, and because our office culture encourages us to rest when we’re ill, I can be confident that I won’t face any negative peer pressure when I return, no snide comments about how I took two days out of the office to recover from “the sniffles,” and no professional repercussions.

There are too many workplaces where never taking a sick day is seen as a badge of honor. I think those people need therapy. It’s time to start paying attention to this issue and stop creating environments where people feel like they can’t take time out to care for their health. It’s good for productivity, it’s good for retention, and frankly it’s just the right thing to do.

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Checkout accounting jobs, UK at AccountantCareers.co.uk.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2006 at 1:26 pm and is filed under For Employers, Workplace Ephemera. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.