Sickness from work

[Gaz]

Often an emotive subject I know but here goes

I work on a team of 8 people and last set of shifts one of my colleagues arrived at work with a stinking cold/flu/manflu and was in such a sorry state he was sent home after 4 hours, he also kindly passed the bug on to most of the rest of the team resulting in a total of 10 sick days being taken across the team.

Most employers have some form of sickness monitoring system whereby employees are discouraged from taking excessive time off sick which is perfectly understandable, there are also a lot of people who feel the need to be a hero and come to work even when they are clearly unfit. In the example I have given if one person had stayed at home for 3 days it would have saved an additional 7 lost working days for our employer.

[dave2010]

This could clearly have a significant impact in some areas of work, though in others perhaps less so. From your data do we assume that most team members actually only took one day off due to the sickness they "inherited"? For critical teams this could be catastrophic, but most work isn't perhaps like that. Workers in health services should definitely take time off, to reduce the risk they'll pass their problems on to patients.

Often though illness is spread by children, so should we stop having them?

[stairpost]

Often an emotive subject I know but here goes

I work on a team of 8 people and last set of shifts one of my colleagues arrived at work with a stinking cold/flu/manflu and was in such a sorry state he was sent home after 4 hours, he also kindly passed the bug on to most of the rest of the team resulting in a total of 10 sick days being taken across the team.

Most employers have some form of sickness monitoring system whereby employees are discouraged from taking excessive time off sick which is perfectly understandable, there are also a lot of people who feel the need to be a hero and come to work even when they are clearly unfit. In the example I have given if one person had stayed at home for 3 days it would have saved an additional 7 lost working days for our employer.

Apparently a person is contagious before symptoms appear, so even if the chap had stayed at home as soon as he felt really bad, it may have already been too late for the rest of you.

[walpurgis]

I know what you're getting at. I spent half my day in an office when working and was constantly catching nasty infections from other staff. I counted catching eleven colds or flu like bugs one year. The workers all kept coming into work unwell from fear of logging sick days, which of course spread the illness around.

Since I retired, I catch such nasties maybe once or twice a year, some years not at all.

[struth]

I always thought it false economy of businesses to insist on ill workers, especially contagious ones coming to work. A few days and you'll be better without bringing half the staff down with them, and thats not to mention any customers they come into contact with.
Mind you the folk who make those rules are usually safely tucked well away from all that

[walpurgis]

It's the middle management attitude. More concerned with the headcount than healthy staff.

[Pigmy Pony]

Maybe it's different these days, but when I worked in the art department of a large print firm, time off sick meant three days of no pay (I think they called it waiting days), followed by a piss-poor sick pay. Time away was a big financial jolt, especially when you had mortgages and kids and stuff. Luckily I rarely got sick. Probably had a total of about three weeks off sick in the 22 years I worked there, much of that from falling off motorbikes.

[Puffin]

It's the middle management attitude. More concerned with the headcount than healthy staff.

Most employers couldn't give a shit about their employees physical or mental health. They would rather have you infect the whole workforce than say you are ill, which would be treated with suspicion and derision, which you could sense in the tone of voice during the telephone call and so everybody loses. Did the firm learn a lesson? Unlikely, but they made it clear where you stand as a valued employee

[PhilofCas]

Apparently a person is contagious before symptoms appear, so even if the chap had stayed at home as soon as he felt really bad, it may have already been too late for the rest of you.

This.

Also, who’s to say the bug will be passed on, I’ve always believed you should go to work if you feel up to it.

[Edward]

Where I worked most recently it was written into HR policy that employees who had, or suspected having a contagious or infectious disease (other than a common cold) had to seek permission before coming to work. There were one or two occasions when I told a member of the team to go home. But we had fairly generous sick pay terms so people did not have an incentive to come to work unnecessarily.