You know, it has been a pet peeve of mine for a while that most companies have a lax or non-existent policy of coming to work ill. This TB thing has got me thinking about just how much communicable diseases affect our economy. From my experience, which numbers in the thousands, most people are willing to come to work sick in order to avoid using up earned time off, or lose pay, or some such event. I have yet to see in any employee handbook where someone with a communicable disease such as a cold or flu, or something worse, would be penalized for coming in to work and exposing their co-workers to infection. I suppose that in many cases people may not realize they are infected and contagious before real symptoms start to manifest. In some cases symptoms may not come on until a considerable time after contagion is likely.

However, for people to come to work running a fever, with a running nose and a nasty cough or sneezing that is obviuosly not from hayfever just isn't right. Unfortunately, many companys have policies that combine sick time with accumulating vacation time, so that the fewer days you take off work due to illness, the more time you get to go play. That policy seems to be wholly counter-productive. What that tells me is if you are willing to come in to work even when you aren't feeling good, regardless of the consequences to others, then the company will reward your diehard effort by letting you take that time off to go play later on. I think it stinks, because if I catch a cold or flu from someone who was inconsiderate enough to come to work sick, then I either take the time off or perpetuate the same transgression onto others. Of course, the company's view is that you were likely to catch it anyways, since it is obviously circulating. What if it is something more serious, though, like meningitis, or chicken pox, or mono, or hepatitis, or TB? What if someone brings that to work because they don't know that's what they have, and they don't want to take the time off?

See, if you establish a policy of non-enforcement, then it is only a matter of time before something much more serious hits the workforce. People will take advantage of whatever chance you give them, usually at the expense of others.

I've taken the issue up with my company's Health and Safety Managers, and my argument was that if I caught something at work then according to the law I should be entitled to a Labor and Industries time loss claim, just as if I had been injured on the job. Their position was that they would contest the claim unless it was apparent that the illness was contracted from work, meaning they considered a cold or flu to be too common to exclude outside exposure. So the bottom line is we are stuck with a lame policy that only works to the benefit of the company up until something really bad happens. Like I said, it stinks. There shouldn't be any exclusions at work, there certainly aren't any in the regulations. I know what happens when someone is careless at work and it results in someone being injured, it ought to be the same if you come to work sick and expose others who then get sick.

Just my rant for the day.

I know I've taken home a couple nasty illnesses that came from ther co-workers, basically I got the same symptoms that they had a couple days before me.

Then OTOH everyone always thinks I'm always sick because of sinus problems from when I was exposed to second hand smoke working through college so I now constantly sniff and cough.

Employers keep cutting back paid time off as well as holidays, so what can one really expect? And if you are in any kind of low wage work without benefits, forget any paid time off or only a miserly accrual at best. My wife worked at a grocery store and they got 5 holidays and 5 leave days a year. Where is the fairness in that? If I used up my leave time when I was sick, then I would never have any time off for vacations or just getting away from work for a while, and in my line of work I burn out frequently.

It is just the culture we live in. Look at the movies and the "rags-to-riches" type success stories. Hard work through and through seems to be the theme. Pushing through at whatever costs, and if you start slipping, watch out, because somebody else wants you job so you better perform well. And on the note of policies at the workplace, since companies always include the lame statements in their employee policy manuals like "this is not a contract...blah, blah, blah...we reserve the right to ammend, modify, these policies...blah, blah, blah..." If the company can do anything they want at any time as it is deemed in the best interest of the company, then what good is all that legalese for anyway?

If people got real time off, then yes, they w(and I) would stay home when sick.

I can sympathize with your predicament insofaras I used to be in the same boat a while back. I guess time off is one of those perks related to your value as an employee. While I was at the bottom of the pile, it seemed I never got time off unless I didn't care about getting paid. Now that I have moved up close to the top, I am being offered a better deal because it is one of those incentives that keeps the company competitive for talent such as mine. I guess it goes with getting paid what you're worth, or only as much as it costs to replace you, depending on your perspective.

It would be interesting I think if companies were taken to task just like they would be regarding a job related injury. It should be no different, and employees who are reckless enough to come to work sick should be treated the same as those who recklessly injure others at work. It should never have gotten to the point where the employees have to make a judgement call about whether they should choose between the welfare of their fellow workers or getting paid. If a person's lifestyle is such that they risk their own health, then that risk shouldn't automatically be translated to others without penalty, regardless of how well off they are or aren't. It should never be a question of whether people earned the time off or not. If you get sick from work, then you should be entitled, regardless of the cause, and if you make someone sick at work, then you should bear the penalty for that action, whether you can afford it or not.

Great, so after looking it up, I find the categorical exemption in 29 CFR 1904(b)(2)(viii), which basically says that the cold and flu are exempt from being claimed as a work related illness. However, more severe illnesses, such as TB, Brucellosis and the Plague would be. Gimme a stinking break!!!

Basically, it says we're screwed, and just live with it. BTW, their general categorization of flu would tend to include any Bird flu as well, so you won't be able to claim time loss if someone comes to work with the bird flu and you catch it.

Welcome to the human condition.

I think a lot of it has to do with employees taking sick days when they aren't really sick. My employer is one of the many who have changed from the separate sick time and vacation time allotment to strictly earned time off.

When I'm around sick folks I've started using "Zicam" spray. They have a mint flavor that is palatable. Stay FAR, FAR away from the cherry flavored tablets.

Whether it's a placebo effect or not, I don't know. But it does seem to work.

One more variable is that a person can be contagious even though they show no signs or symptoms, therefore, you might already have been infected before so and so comes to work...

I had a professor in college that said something that has always stuck with me.

"If you are sick, don't go to work. No matter how invaluable you think you are, nobody is that important."

I work closely with a guy who has NEVER taken a single sick day off from work in eleven years. He is held up as The Good Example, the wonderful person who always comes in, no matter what. The fact that he comes in and gives it to the rest of us seems to go right over their tiny, pointed little heads.

A friend of mine worked for some company years ago that had a supervisor with a cast-iron rule: If you come in sick, you can just damn well go back home again, and I mean RIGHT NOW!

I'm sure that has changed. Sigh.

Greed. Nothing but overwhelming greed.

If you have to come in sick, be sure to cough or sneeze right at your supervisor/manager/etc.

Sue

If you work with the public as I did, you are gonna catch whatever is going around, no matter what. Maybe from co-workers, maybe John Q, but you WILL get it. Often. So I went to work as long as I was not puking or had the scoots. What really got me was the co-workers who had the Monday Mumps or Friday Flu every month. You know, the ones scheduled for graveyard shift who call in at 8pm, and you can hear the party going on in the background. So someone has to work alone, with the increased workload/safety factor. As a plus, when I retired I had a years worth of sickleave on the books, and since I was retiring with an industrial disability it was all tax free. Nice little chunk of change in our pocket...