Your Survival Blog
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Don’t make me sick!: Talking to your employer about pandemic flu
Over the summer of 2009, absenteeism due to swine flu reached previously unseen levels in Canada, Australia and the UK. The British government responded by expanding workers’ rights to take sick leave without having to visit a doctor, clogging up waiting rooms and possibly infecting other people. But three industrialized countries — Canada, Japan and the United States — have no national law allowing for sick pay during short-term illnesses like influenza. (In Canada, to be fair, most provinces cover this at a provincial level.) In the United States, there is not even protection (except occasionally at the state or local level) from being fired for illness. US sick-leave policies vary drastically from employer to employer; some provide no sick leave, and some threaten to let workers go if they stay home sick, which can be a recipe for disaster in a pandemic.
sick leave policy
If you’re concerned that your employer’s sick-leave policy is inadequate — time allowed for illness is subtracted from vacation, or is minimal compared to other companies in your area — consider joining together with other employees to hold a meeting. Explain that to keep everybody safe, including management, you’d like to be more confident that you can take time off with an infectious illness so as not to spread it to your boss and coworkers.
Almost half of private employers in the US, employing sixty million workers, have no sick leave at all. If you live in the US and your employer does not provide time off for illness, or threatens to fire workers who become ill, consider calling your local legislators; a number of US cities and states have introduced (or passed) legislation requiring such leave, and yours may be next. (Legislation has also been introduced at a federal level, and may gain momentum with official advice from the Centers for Disease Control that everyone with flu symptoms stay at home.)
But it’s best to approach this as a win-win situation for everyone. Your workplace management probably has no more desire to see everyone in the company fall ill in a pandemic than you do.
No matter where you live, however, there are many strategies you can use to work toward better health for you and your colleagues.
minimizing your exposure
The guiding principle here is “social distance” — how close do you have to get to your coworkers and to the general public?
If you’re a long-haul trucker, you’re in a very low-risk group: keep your hands clean (be careful in public restrooms!), don’t let people breathe on you and you’ll be fine. If you’re a pulmonologist who does respiratory procedures, you’re in a very high-risk group, but we presume you already know how to take care of yourself with respirators and other infection-control measures.
If you have a wonky immune system or you’re pregnant, you should definitely consult your doctor about special procedures for keeping yourself safe, and take those concerns to your employer.
The rest of you, however, may be able to control many risks from exposure to those you work with. (Many of these suggestions are taken from advice by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration.)
Teleconferencing: If you work in a position that includes a lot of travel, can virtual conferences and email replace some of the face-to-face meetings? In the workplace, can you avoid cramming groups into a small conference room with minimal ventilation, and use the phone or text messaging instead?
Telecommuting: If most employees sit at computers all day, are they encouraged to take a laptop and work at home at the first sign of fever or cough?
Flexible shifts: Can management consider staggering work hours so that everyone is not sharing the same location at the same time?
New social norms: Is it okay for everyone to stand six feet apart (about 2m) when illness is spreading? Can you agree not to shake hands, or to wash immediately if you must touch? Is it okay for everybody to have their own tools or equipment and agree not to share? Can you restrict visitors to the workplace (or parts of it, like large cubicle farms) while a pandemic is underway?
maintaining good hygiene
Do your workplace restrooms and kitchen have plenty of soap and warm water? Are facilities cleaned regularly? Are tissues, wastebaskets, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes (for keyboards, telephones and the like) available — including to customers? Can you change trash cans with manual covers to step-on bins? Does everybody in the office aware that high-touch items (doorknobs, shared keyboards, the office coffeepot or water cooler) should be handled only with clean hands, that you should cough or sneeze into a shoulder or elbow if a tissue is not handy, and that you should avoid touching your face without washing afterward?
If you work in a place of high contact with the public (a customer-service window, for example), is there a clear barrier ("sneeze guard") to help prevent people breathing in your face? Is there a way to shift more of your business to a drive-through window, a Web site, or expanded phone hours?
staying healthy
If your workplace promotes good health — has generous health insurance or wellness programs, helps employees quit smoking, provides healthy snacks, encourages you to take an hour for a flu shot — you’re well ahead of the game. If not, fill in wherever you can. Don’t smoke; bring fruits and veggies for your lunch or snack break; get vaccinated after hours if you can.
Take care of your immune system, and it’s possible that you’ll become less ill if you do catch something, and recover faster. Or — knock on wood — not become ill at all. That’s a work goal we can all get behind.
Posted by eks on 11/17 at 10:38 AM(10) Comments • Permalink