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Posted By MAK
Hi,
As this is not my usual field I was hoping some of you might have links or hints as to where I can find soime literature or figures advising employers on how to reduce absences due to cold and flu viruses being spread.
Obviously I have some common sense knoweldge I can refer to, but if any one has any links to relevant articles it would be appreciated.
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Posted By H Klinkenberg
If you want to view the debates on this subject I suggest you take a look at the PersonnalToday web site. My opinion:
Many employers implement 'presenteeism' policies to meet HR attendance targets and ignore the significant problems associated with encouraging genuinely 'sick' employees to come to work. This 'presenteeism' policy can:
1. cause infections to be spread to other workers,
2. create an increased risk of accidents, mistakes and errors because sick employees are unable to concentrate on their work,
3. result in more overtime and reworking due to accidents, errors and mistakes,
4. reduce productivity,
5. cause tension, stress and resentment in the workforce,
6. result in a far greater financial loss than would have been experienced if the employer had encouraged the sick employee to 'get better' at home.
The difficulty is separating the genuinely sick from those who are not!
Humphrey Klinkenberg
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Posted By Stephan
Totally agree, infections can spread like wildfire within a working environment, especially if the person infected deals with food. The answer is indeed to stop at home until the symptonshave been gone for 24 - 48 hours
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Posted By Paul Duell
There's quite a bit of useful information on the UK resilience website at
http://www.ukresilience.info/
It's mainly focussed on pandemic flu, but the advice they give is pretty universal.
Unfortunately it isn't the easiest website in the world to read, and the useful stuff is a bit buried, but the good stuff is worth digging for!
HTH, Paul
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Posted By MAK
thanks guys.
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Posted By Jay Joshi
It may help if there was a multi-pronged effort on lines similar to NHS to prevent spread of the "infection"(i.e. virus)--essentially, the importance of having clean hands, hand washing and cleaning door handles surfaces etc. But is this parcticable in a non health care setting?? This is a complex issue.
Whether one should come to work or not --erhaps there is a need for some co-ordination between the professional bodies that represent HR(CIPD), Health professionals (various) and IOSH. Is this not a case of individual occupational health assessment?? (i.e. in some cases, home working should be encouraged)
Another factor that coumpounds the situation is air conditioning/ventilation systems that recirculates the "air".
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Posted By Tabs
Jay, not sure I have seen any evidence that air conditioning spreads viruses. Are there any studies showing that?
It is rare for Occ health to know that people are attending with colds etc., so difficult for them to intervene beyond policy level.
Often individuals assume that they have to attend (certainly the case here). Often bosses have little true influence in the matter.
I however, have just returned from three days rest due to a cold. I practice what I preach ;-)
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