With flu season coming..

[C.Ann]

How do employers and employees alike determine what is for the greater good?

If you are an employee - and you have the flu - do you go to work and expose others or stay home?

If you are the employer - do you expect your employees to report for work anyhow (knowing full well that they will make others ill) - or do you expect them to stay home?

I've worked in places where you were encouraged to stay home - and in others where you were expected to report to work unless you were in the ICU at the local hospital..

Just curious how this is handled by others.. (Not to mention I'm bored silly today... )

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

At my old work, you were expected to take vacation days if you got sick. Otherwise, it counted "against" you in your review. It was ridiculous! I only got really sick once while I worked there, and I sure as heck took sick days. People did come to work sick because of this unwritten "policy," and they just ended up getting other people sick. I hope that most employers have more common sense than to encourage that behavior.

 

[ducklite]

First of all, "flu season" refers to INFLUENZA. Anyone with influenza will be too sick to go to work. It's a very serious disease which will knock you so far off your shoes that you will barely be able to lift the phone to call out. (I've had it twice, it's a miserable disease.)

If you are talking about general fall/winter maladies, by the time someone has symptoms with a cold, they have already been contagious for a couple days, so it's very likely others in the office are already infected and don't know it yet. For colds without a fever or accompanying disease such as strep, it's ridiculous to stay home--you simply can't exist in industrialized society and not be exposed to virus's. Of course those with a cold should take precautions such as frequent handwashing, trying to stay away from others, sneezing/coughing into several fresh tissues, taking medication to keep sneezing/coughing minimal to begin with, etc. The one or two really "bad" days you might want to stay home, because you likely won't be terribly productive to begin with. 48 hours after the onset of symptoms, a true rhinovirus is no longer contagious.

If you've got something like strep, pink eye, smallpox, chickenpox, malaria, ebola, Norwalk, bubonic plague, bacterial pneumonia, bacterial menengitis, or any other highly contagious and more serious disease, then you should stay home, especially if the health department has yellow quarantine tape around your house and an armed guard posted. Nothing at work is critical enough to tunnel your way out.

Anne

 

[mudnuri]

I was always told if your sick, stay home. Of course not all bosses feel this way, but if I'm sick, I am not doing anyone any good by being at work.

My last job, I could work from home so it was not an issue. I was networked to everyone at the office, and in this day with email etc. I wasnt missing anything by not being at work.

Now, that I'm not working but in school, I took yesterday off. I have a serious head cold (which is still here ) and knew that in a/p lab we would be working on microscopes. I also knew that it wasnt fair to my fellow students for me to be breathing on the same scopes they were using.. I emailed my professor and explained this, and will take my practical on Monday instead.

Today- I had a Psych exam, but I went in and took that, and left. Didnt stay for the lecture part of the class. I didnt breath on anyone while there so thats the difference between yesterday and today.

My girls- if they are sick, they stay home. If they are coughing, etc... they stay home. I dont dose them up with tylenol and send them to school. I wish more parents did the same thing!

Brandy

 

[C.Ann]

First of all, "flu season" refers to INFLUENZA. Anyone with influenza will be too sick to go to work. It's a very serious disease which will knock you so far off your shoes that you will barely be able to lift the phone to call out. (I've had it twice, it's a miserable disease.)


Anne

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Been there, done that - but I have actually seen people come to work, leave in an ambulance and still be penalized by their employers upon their return..

I understand that businesses don't function (or at least not very well) when they are short staffed, but it happens every year and should be expected..

 

[C.Ann]

If you've got something like strep, pink eye, Anne

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Forgot to mention that I was forced to report for work when I had pink eye a number of years ago - and I was working in the healthcare field..

 

[ducklite]

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Forgot to mention that I was forced to report for work when I had pink eye a number of years ago - and I was working in the healthcare field..

Ewwwww...... (nothing personal!)

Anne

 

[CourtasanSatine]

This term I may have to go to class sick at least once, tech school is that picky