Aa-choo! Sickness in the workplace.
Dec 6th, 2007 by Jason
The presence of my annual winter cold has left me with little spare energy for extra-curricular blogging. In fact, just keeping my eyes focused on a screen has been agony of late.
My partner is of the opinion that when sick you should stay home, shut out the world and get better but I suffer with the feeling of guilt when taking a day sick, even when I’m really, really sick. (I should add that I have had 2.5 days sick this year and 0 days last year). The problem with this approach, from a health perspective, is that it takes so much longer to get better.
The British workaholic attitude seems to have been made worse by the Thatcher years, where the attitude was ‘you get what you work for’ etc. and is not tolerant of loafers.
Although the UK already has the highest working hours in Europe, a contributing factor in sickness, no-one wants to be associated with the idea that they take ’sickies’. I’m sure everyone knows someone that has as much sick as they have holiday, or always take the same days off. There are also regular news stories in the national news about how much sickness costs the economy so what can be done?
When I was 10 years old, I won the school spelling contest (you wouldn’t know it now) and as a reward was allowed to pick a book from the school’s book club. I picked a book that described how we would live and work in the future (ie by the year 2000 - woo!)
It said that technology would have advanced so much as to make our lives easy; we would work only 3 days a week, probably from home. I wonder what the social effects would be if people really had that much free time? Would it lead to a better society or to a decline? Good material for another post!
Personally I think greater acceptance of, and opportunity for, working from home is the best idea. After all, even if you are ill you still get some work done, if not as much when you are healthy, and as an additional benefit you are not spreading illness to colleagues.
I am much the same as you, i rarely take the day off, even when quite ill (touch wood - i have not really been ill this year). I do agree with the idea of working from home though, as long as people do not abuse the privilege.
Anyway, get well soon.
You say
“The problem with this approach, from a health perspective, is that it takes so much longer to get better”
The real problem is with thoughtless sods playing martyr and spreading it to those who are ordinarinally fit and healthy.
Handkerchief, lemsip wrap up warm and stay away.
I feel that ‘thoughtless’ is a little harsh on the part of the employee.
What is really required in an environment that introduced ‘attendance bonuses’ is thoughtful management, that can suggest you go work from home or some such, giving permission to the dedicated worker to take some down time without repercussion.