You buy your morning paper, and the fellow who sells it to you sneezes into his hand—the same hand he then uses to give you your change. At the counter of your favorite coffee shop, the barista wipes her red and runny nose, grabs a paper cup, and prepares your grande latte. At the office, a colleague approaches you, shakes your hand, and then he complains about the nasty cold he has.
The next day, you awaken with a sore throat and feel progressively worse as the day goes on. You don’t sleep well that night, because somehow you’ve just come down with a cold. Hmm. Might there be a connection between the first series of events and the second?
And now that you’re sick, should you go to work or not? It’s tempting to stay home, watch TV, and sleep a lot, but for many people this seems too self-indulgent. Perhaps you feel you’re indispensable, or that taking some time off will mean coming back to even more work. Or perhaps you’re in a situation where you literally can’t afford to miss a day or two at the office.
In spite of the compelling reasons why we think we ought to go to work while sick with a cold or the flu, or at least do our work at home, there are even stronger reasons why it is wrong to do so.
Here’s why: Illnesses like the cold and flu can be spread by physical contact. When we’re sick, the people with whom we come into physical contact have a significantly increased risk of coming down with the illness, according to virologists, epidemiologists, and other experts. There is a causal relationship between being sick with a cold or the flu and making others sick by touching them directly or handling an object that they soon touch themselves.
Since everything we do has a ripple effect, the illness you pass along to a co-worker may be then passed along to your co-worker’s family, making your decision to come to work sick even more troubling. Also, bear in mind that the flu can be deadly, particularly to older people or those with certain chronic illnesses. In the U.S. almost 40,000 people die each year from the flu or flu-related complications. It’s one thing to inconvenience co-workers by giving them your cold. It’s quite another thing, medically and morally, to pose a serious health risk to others by passing along the influenza virus or to endanger yourself by not giving yourself the chance to get better.
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Photo by MSDesigns.
Should You Go To Work When You’re Sick?
March 18, 2008 by Rich | 2 Comments
In Employees, Health, Office
Dane on March 18th, 2008 at 7:50 am
What if you work out of your home, like I do? I was just asking myself this question yesterday.
If I stay home, I run the risk of infecting my family, who are also at home. Once they get sick, the virus might mutate and then reinfect me.
If I leave, and go somewhere else for the day, it’s like “going” to work and I might infect someone else. If I go somewhere that I don’t normally go, I might have the best chance of infecting someone that won’t reinfect me.
But then I wondered, why am I trying to help my virus to infect others? That’s it’s job, not mine.
So I stayed home, in my office and didn’t infect anyone. (I hope.)
Cassy on May 5th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I did that before couple of times working while sick and believe me not advisable.
I was sick before but I try to work since I have a deadline but look what happen I see myself nap on my desk and my officemates can’t concentrate to work because they are busy checking on me.
I realize this is not a good idea as they stop working just to check me, they are disturbed with their work by being concern about me but hey let’s face it it’s a working area not a hospital.