Sick at Work

I hate being sick. As I am writing this column, I am suffering from the flu. Not only is my body feeling the effects of the flu, my mind is affected by the over-the-counter flu medicine with which I decided to self-medicate. But we have a print deadline and the show must go on, so here I sit and write.

I recall the times I was sick when I worked as a mechanic. I would tough it out and take a couple of cold pills and go in to work. I didn’t want to burn up all my sick days. I thought I was doing the right thing by not letting my team or my employer down by calling in sick. Thinking back on it, part of it was also just my male ego letting everyone know I was “tough” and I wasn’t going to let a few cold symptoms get the better of me.

Was that the right thing to do? Looking back, it seems like it was a selfish thing to do. I was exposing my coworkers to the influenza virus, cold, or whatever was ailing me and risking getting them sick. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says that when you sneeze, you can spread the flu or cold to anyone within a 12-foot radius. In addition, the viruses that cause us to get sick can linger on surfaces from several seconds up to 48 hours, depending on the conditions and the surface. Does this make you want to break out a bottle of hand sanitizer and put on a mask at work during the flu season? I am thinking of all the tools, keyboards, phones, vending machines, etc., that are commonly used and could harbor these nasty bugs.

Spreading colds and the flu in the workplace comes at an expensive price. The CDC says,“Flu costs businesses approximately $10.4 billion in direct costs for hospitalizations and outpatient visits for adults.” This year in particular, many regions of the country are declaring an “epidemic” outbreak of the flu with the flu virus being more deadly and contagious than in past years.

When we choose to report to work sick, not only are we potentially getting others sick, we are not at our mental “A” games. Our mental states are affected not only by the fatigue caused by the cold or flu. They are affected by the medicines we take as well, and this directly impacts the work we are performing.

Joe discusses maintenance duty times in his editorial column this month (see page 4). Duty times can definitely affect job performance because of fatigue. But many of us don’t think to consider the fatigue caused by being sick and medicated at the workplace.

I took a peek at the warning label on the flu medicine I am taking. I could easily take up the rest of my column and go into the BizJet ad on the opposite page if I were to copy the entire list of warnings on the label. I think the important one when it comes to safety in the workplace is:

When using this product

• do not exceed recommended dosage

• avoid alcoholic drinks

• may cause drowsiness

• be careful when driving a motor vehicle or operating machinery

• excitability may occur, especially in children

It’s pretty easy to reason that if the warning says “may cause drowsiness” and “be careful when driving a motor vehicle or operating machinery,” we should be extremely vigilant when it comes to maintaining aircraft while taking cold or flu medicine. We should either avoid working while taking medicine, or have additional safety nets in place such as a second set of eyes inspecting our work.

In closing, my suggestion to you is that if possible, stay home at the earliest signs of a cold or the flu to save your coworkers and your company from the costs related to spreading the flu. If you don’t have the flu yet, you might want to consider having a flu vaccination. Many businesses provide them for free, and you can often find pharmacies or other locations that provide them at a low cost.

Regardless of whether or not you already had the flu this year, take steps yourself and encourage all those who work for you and around you to be proactive about staying flu- and virus-free. Not only will you be healthier, you will be happier!

You can learn more about colds and the flu at the CDC’s Web site at www.cdc.gov.

Thanks for reading!

Greg Napert, Proud to be an A&P