Bringing Germs to Work

Fulltime Freelancer on April 28, 2009 9:51 AM

With this latest epidemic of swine flu, I’m grateful I work from my home office. A friend of mine was telling me that he had a sore throat and was sure he’d gotten it from a co-worker.

Apparently, this co-worker was coughing and sneezing within close proximity of those around him, including my friend, who was frustrated that he was now getting ill because he can’t afford to miss any work since he already had to accept a pay cut.

Perhaps the same is true for his co-worker, which is why he didn’t call in sick. This, in a roundabout way, may be another consequence from the financial crisis: More employees, ill or not, are afraid to miss a day of work so they show up at the office with a fever and infect their peers, which has the makings for an epidemic.

What should one do in this situation? Would wearing a face mask seem too insulting or extreme? Should the boss send the obviously infectious person home? It’s a difficult dilemma, but the way I see it, keeping the germs from spreading makes good business sense.

Comments (1)

Every day we see another challenging situation that comes out of our financial crisis. NO, it is not fair to go to work sick and possibly make others sick. And NO, it is not fair that workers feel they must go to work sick or risk losing their job. I heard Tory speaking today about how people are optimistic that things will get better soon. I think we have to use that spirit to talk to the boss and be honest about the fact that it will hurt more than help to show up sick at work.

— Posted by Vicki Zerbee | May 5, 2009 12:05 AM | Comment Permalink

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