Business Opportunities Weblog

March 18, 2008 by Rich Whittle | 2 Comments

BusinessWeek:

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.

Read more.

Photo by MSDesigns.

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Tags: Employees, Health, Office