A good friend of mine is an epidemiologist (what a cool job), and she and I were talking about H1N1 the other day. She made an interesting point. Some people are saying things like “This is the next apocalypse” whereas others say “This whole Swine Flu thing has been blown out of proportion,” and neither is correct. The real answer lies somewhere in between. It’s not the end of the world. People will get sick, and yes, people will die, and that’s horrible. But that doesn’t mean that we should take things lightly. Take care of yourself, wash your hands, eat well, get enough rest, and most importantly, if you are sick, stay home. Follow the precautions and stay home for at least 24 hours after you are no longer feverish. (Of course, there are indications that you’re contagious a day before you show symptoms, but there’s not much we can do about that.)
One problem is that people aren’t staying home. It’s a tough situation for people who don’t have paid sick leave. What are they supposed to do? They need to feed their families and pay the rent. And to do that, they have to go to work. Unfortunately, this situation isn’t unique to H1N1 or even the current economic crisis. This is something that people struggle with every day.
Something that seems to be popping up more is what my friend called “presenteeism.” Even though people have sick leave available, they are afraid to take that sick leave because they don’t want their employer to think that they (a) are unnecessary to the company or (b) aren’t dedicated to their jobs. Because for many jobs out there, there’s another person waiting in the wings who would be quite happy to take that job. So they come to work sick. They might stay home a day when the illness is at its worst, but on subsequent days, when they are still sick, still contagious, and still feeling bad, just not quite as bad, they go to work. This isn’t good for anyone – the sick person needs rest to get better and those around him don’t need to be exposed to the illness.
But what do you do? I’m sure for some, their presenteeism is simply overreaction. There is no indication that their boss plans to fire them and would really prefer that sick employees stay home and take care of themselves. But for others, who knows? Sure, there might be legal issues here, but if you saw a co-worker who had been out sick return only to get laid off due to the economic slowdown, what would you think?
The head of our agency has been sending H1N1 updates, letting us know of any supposed cases and any confirmed cases (none as of yet, but as my friend stated, if people are just sick a few days and then get better, they aren’t tested as there’s no real point). We’re encouraged to stay home if we’re showing symptoms and to take care of ourselves. Of course, the whole agency benefits from this – the fewer people exposed, the more people who are at work.
I’m lucky in that I have paid sick leave. It’s not a lot, but worst case scenario, we can get sick leave advanced to us, and there’s no concern of layoffs due to absence. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s not always someone in the office with an awful hacking cough, but there’s only so much you can do.
Have any of you seen any cases of presenteeism in your offices?
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
Couldn’t agree more
It’s not like we’ll all immediately die if we get the flu, but it’s still something that has to be taken seriously..
But people have been commenting on the fact that I cancelled my trip to Asia, as me overreacting to the whole situation.
That H1N1 is “no big deal”
I heartily disagree, as China and Asia in general are HECK of a lot more populated, crammed, & less regulated than North America, except for perhaps NYC and L.A for the population bits.
I think presenteeism is always a problem no matter what the problem is. People should stay home when it’s flu season and they get it, but they don’t. And with H1N1 around, we could nip it in the bud if we all had paid sick leave, etc.
Given the stories we’re hearing from people traveling to China and then immediately being quarantined, I can’t blame you for deciding to change/cancel your trip. The last thing you want is to travel and then not be able to enjoy your trip.
At my husband’s old job, a co-worker was unofficially reprimanded for taking too much sick leave. Had he been sick? yes. But the boss felt like he was using it for when he wasn’t “that” sick. He didn’t take more time than the sick leave he officially had. It’s this attitude that makes people afraid to call in sick.
I’m of the opinion that H1N1 has been hyped up way more than it deserves. Not that people shouldn’t stay home if they’re sick. They should. But many think that when they get it, there will be no question of what it is. We probably have it in our house right now. Heck, half of Oklahoma probably has it right now. But not everyone gets seriously ill from it, as many people I have talked to think. The main difference in this from other flus is that there was no vaccine in time for those that would have a hard time fighting it off. In my opinion, by the time it comes out, it will have been too late for most people – they will have already been exposed. Off my soap box now.
One of the biggest problems is that people in the service industry rarely have unpaid leave. The busboys and waiters at your restaurant, the grocery store checkout clerk, etc. These are people who have contact with a huge number of people on a daily basis — not just standing near you, but handing you something, passing their germs along. They are often in minimum wage jobs, struggling to make ends meet, and can’t afford to take a day off of work, even if their boss is sympathetic (which many aren’t). I have to admit that once when I was working in a bookstore, barely scraping by, I had to come into work with a cold because I wouldn’t be able to pay rent otherwise.
I’m one of those people who think H1N1 is blown way out of proportion, but I do think people too often overlook how quickly ANY contagious disease could spread because the lack of unpaid sick leave.
H1N1 or Swine Flu is a bit scary but it a good thing to note that this virus is not that very deadly. .
At least a hundred persons in our city have been infected with the H1N1 virus. I was very scared to get infected with this disease during the pandemic`.-
the unemployment rate today is a bit higher because of the recession but hopefully the economy would recover soon.,..