I’m actually quite lucky. Despite being surrounded by infectious diseases for sixty hours a week, I don’t get sick all that much (OK, maybe more than most, but I don’t have data). I actually called in sick for part of the day, something I rarely do. And that got me thinking…
When I see a patient with the flu, strep throat, and other infectious diseases, I recommend that they take several days off from work—not just to recover, but to avoid sharing the bugs. A high percentage of my patients refuse, due to fears of losing their jobs. These fears are usually legitimate.
Are we insane?!?
Do we really want sick people sharing our offices? It’s true, some people are indispensable. Last night, for instance, there wasn’t anyone else available to run the walk-in clinic, and we can’t just close it down, so I sucked it up, wore gloves, and tried not to breathe on people.
But how often is someone really indispensable? I’m guessing not that often.
To add insult to misery, many jobs require lengthy forms to be filled out by the employee and their doctor whenever they are out sick. I don’t really have time to do that kind of uncompensated work, but do I want to let my patient get fired?
We need a revolution in our thinking in this country. When people have communicable diseases, they should be taken off work with little hassle. It shouldn’t be a choice. During flu season, removing a few people from the workforce temporarily could save many others from getting sick.
Well, that’s my rant for the day. Luckily I made chicken soup for my wife this weekend, and there’s plenty left over.
I came down with your standard winter cold (which still took a week to recover from) and worked through most of it at my retail job because there was literally no one else to run the store otherwise.
I think even without the annoyance of needing a doctor’s note if you’re out for more than X consecutive days, a lot of people have the mistaken notion that the whole office will fall apart if they are not there. I don’t know how we’re taught this, but I see it in a lot of my peers. Even when they clearly don’t hold an important position.
My office has made a hobby of spreading nasty viruses, mainly because we only get 13 days off a year. That’s it. If you are out sick for three days in each season, you can take 1 day of vacation. Oh, and we don’t close for most of those holidays that are generally family requirements.
I guess the theory is that if you tell people that can’t get sick, those nasty viruses will magically disappear. I have already lost 4 days to the bugs people bring to work because they are terrified of losing all their days off. (And I have to confess that I too drag myself onto the train and to work unless I literally can’t walk.)
Just imagine how many hours they would get out of the rest of us if that first person with the plague could stay home for 4 days and keep it to themselves!
I actually wonder whether there isn’t some peculiar logic to employers’ punitive sick day policy … since becoming self-employed, I’ve been seriously ill three times: once with whooping-cough, once with some kind of feverish sinus plague that lasted six weeks, and once with a really astonishing case of viral gastroenteritis. All of these maladies laid me out flat for ten days, and all of them would have resulted in my being fired had I been working a regular job.
I find it rather interesting that when I did have a regular job, I never got anything worse than a moderately-annoying head cold. I was under more stress, and surrounded by idiots who would sneeze into their hands and then use common equipment,etc. I can’t help wondering whether fear of losing my job somehow improved my immune system … sort of in the same way that people will come down with a cold the minute they relax to go on vacation, or they’ll get sick during the closing night party for the show they just carried for eight weeks.
Granted, it’s kind of a stupid theory, but it does puzzle me a bit.
When employers have an epiphany and realize that employees are an asset to be cared for, rather than an expense, this mindset will change. But they won’t because time is money and employees are created for the express purpose of wringing every last ounce of work out of them to pad the bottom line. Not that I’m cynical or anything! It’s just that I’ve been in several jobs where I was nothing more than a necessary evil, not an important part of the company. It’s a sad comment on our society as a whole.
Universal healthcare would solve this problem, as the employer would partially be paying for the medical care ANYHOW, they could expect a nice solid bit of evidence of actual sickness.
How often do you get sick, doctor? I average 1 day of feeling slightly ill every year, and 1 week consecutive of illness every 5 to 7 years. (i’m due for a wicked flu this year, but it doesn’t look like it’s gunna happen).
Then again, i don’t bleach and sanitize everything in my house. I try to keep myself reasonably clean (wash my face, brush teeth daily), do all the small things. I don’t use antibacterial soap when i do wash my hands, either. I’d say my immune system is as good as can be expected from someone in my state of affairs
Our office currently has 2 sections. I work in the back offices that havs about 15 people. Of those 15, half are sick. People do not want to go home because they lose there PTO days. Who wants to spend their vacation days being ill? So what happens is everyone comes in. When they get too ill to make it they finally relent but then end up coming back to the office before they are well enough and the cycle just continues. I have never been sick so many times in one year as I have been working here.