With summer approaching fast, the constant weather change is causing many people to catch colds and find themselves facing a choice about how to do their jobs without spreading their cold.
When you wake up in the morning with a fever and a runny nose, it's a tough situation. Do you call in sick or go to work even though you are feeling like crud? Many people, especially those who have jobs where being present is important, calling in sick can feel like being a bad employee.
If you don't go in to work, then someone will have to cover for you. There are deadlines that don't care about how you are feeling and in some situations, you might worry about losing pay or even losing your job.
That's why so many of us just suck it up and drag ourselves to work, even when we feel awful.
But is it the best thing to do?
Not really. In fact, going to work when you are sick can cost your company a lot in lost productivity. You will be less productive and may very well make several costly mistakes. The bigger concern, though, is that you will spread your germs around the office and soon, several other employees will be sick and less productive.
Several years ago, I worked in a small office with only 10 employees. Because each person's job was vital to the overall productivity of the team, calling in sick always felt like letting everyone down. When someone was out, we all had to work twice as hard. Knowing how difficult it would make it for everyone else, no one wanted to have to miss work. So instead, they came to work sick.
All it took was one bad cold, and suddenly employees were dropping like flies. Soon, three people had it and the original sick person was all better. By the time it worked its way through the office, the first person had caught it again. In order to break the cycle, we all had to take a day or two off in order to get better.
According to CBSNews, almost half of employers have had problems with sick people coming to work and causing more problems than if they had stayed home. In fact, it has become such a problem that many offices are starting to enforce a policy of keeping sick employees out of the office.
Knowing this, many employers are starting to send sick employees home or discourage them from coming in at all.
If you are sick, you should think about the cost of going to work very carefully. Ask yourself if they can get along without you. At many offices, there could be an option to telecommute. You can check your work email and work on projects at home, keeping your workspace germ free.
For others, who have jobs where their physical presence is important, you may want to think of other options. Even if your employer doesn't like for employees to be out, taking a day or two to get better, rather than spread your germs to the rest of the staff, might be the best thing you can do for the company.
Do you go to work when you're sick? What is your office policy about sick employees? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for SalesHeadsBlog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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