From the title you might assume that Bugbears are blessed with a mighty constitution. Well your assumption would wrong. What a Bugbear usually has is a wee streak of stubbornness about 5 leagues wide. Consequently, I generally go to work in spite of a variety of aches, pains, twitches, and sniffles. I know it's politically incorrect to do so but generally you've already spent time infecting your workplace by the time you notice you're ill.
There are two things that will keep me home though. Nausea and diarrhea. On Tuesday I had the former and on Wednesday I stayed home with the latter. The last time I stayed home I had mononucleosis and I missed a week and a half of work and then worked half days for another week.
This week also heralds another date. I went on my first date with Mrs. Bugbear just about this time 6 years ago. Now we have two daughters, a dog, a cat and a house in the country. All I need is a truck for complete happiness!
How much of a risk you are to co-workers also has a lot to do with how tightly you tend to work with other workers. If you have an office and tend to work alone in it most of the time, you are less of a hazard than if you share communal spaces in close proximity with others most of the time (or even worse, if you work in the same cube with someone else regularly).
ReplyDeleteI have not seen a study from an economist or statistician (or medical person) suggesting what the real math in these cases (as far as impact to corporate bottom line is). I would be interested to know if having sick workers work is a net benefit versus having them stay home whenever they appear sick.
On the one hand, you may prevent other workers going out sick. On the other hand, you (may) pay the sick worker for days of not-work. You may also impact service/project delivery. I'm not sure what the balance of this equation is and I don't believe I've seen evidence one way or the other anywhere to suggest what a best practice or corporate policy would be. You'd also have to factor in reduced productivity while you had sick workers working.
It also may depend on what you have. If you come down with some horrid contagious virus, maybe you should stay home. But that may not be obvious at the outset. It isn't a simple scenario and a 'profit maximizing' strategy for business would require some analysis I haven't yet seen (and suspect has not been done).