SICK DAYS

Colds, the flu and other illnesses make workers feel miserable and cost their employers money. Common sense can go a long way toward preventing them.

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/24/05

BY DENNIS P. CARMODY
ASSISTANT BUSINESS EDITOR

For John Lombardo, there's only one way to battle the cold and flu season at Branches, his banquet business in West Long Branch.

"You overstaff," he said with a laugh.

Leaves aren't the only things that fall in the autumn. Workers find themselves falling sick, victims of flu and cold viruses.

That alone is a problem for their employers. But even worse, many try to get back to work much too early and risk infecting everyone else.

"Any time people are in close proximity to one another, it increases the chance of spreading the virus," said Dr. Steven Crawford, director of occupational health for Meridian Health, the Wall-based operator of three local hospitals.

Many people view colds and the flu as annoying inconveniences, but they can be more than that. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 36,000 Americans die from the flu annually, and 200,000 Americans are hospitalized, said spokesman Dave Daigle.

Most of those people are in high-risk categories — such as people with asthma, emphysema, diabetes or other pre-existing conditions, said Martin Meltzer, an economist for the CDC. About 80 percent to 90 percent of the deaths are people age 65 and older, he said.

Still, many workers are putting themselves in jeopardy, he said. A CDC report found only 24 percent of workers in the high-risk categories got a flu shot in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available, Meltzer said.

About 10 percent to 12 percent of all absences from work are because of the flu, said Roslyn Stone, chief operating officer of Corporate Wellness Inc., a health-services company based in New York City. That translates to about 15 million lost workdays a year.

And that doesn't even count people who come to work sick and perform under par or healthy workers who stay home to take care of sick relatives, Stone said. "We don't do a very good job of measuring this," she said.

Illnesses force employers to give serious consideration to their staffing needs. Lombardo of Branches overstaffs some of his catered events, knowing some workers will inevitably fall sick. Given the nature of his banquet business, they can't have the option of coming to work and slogging through the day.

"If you're in contact with food, it's almost obligatory to not come to work, even if you want to work," Lombardo said.

And even if Lombardo's employees all stay healthy, they still have to deal with the public, who may not be.

"We do events where anyone can come in, like job fairs," Lombardo said. "You can't control who's coming in."

Medical professionals say there's little you can do if you get the flu or a cold other than wait for your body to defeat it. Viruses aren't defeated by antibiotics the way bacterial infections are.

"If you have the flu, don't go to work," said Crawford of Meridian.

Close contact

At Tapestry International Ltd., a Sea Bright television production company, it's hard for the close-knit staff of 35 workers to avoid contact with each other.

But getting people with the flu to stay home is easier said than done.

"We have an incredibly busy delivery schedule between now and the end of the year," said Nancy Walzog, owner of Tapestry. "We all spend a lot of hours together."

While she builds a schedule that allows for some leeway should people get sick, some workers inevitably come in when they'd probably be better off staying in bed. "We have some people who are battling colds because they want to get their work done," Walzog said.

Workers feel obligated to come in even when they should stay home for a variety of reasons, said Jim O'Connor of Egan, Amato & O'Connor, an employee benefits consulting firm based in Manasquan. "There doesn't have to be overt pressure for an employee to feel like he needs to be there," he said.

Employers usually aren't so short-sighted as to order sick workers to come to the office, where they could infect the rest of the staff, O'Connor said. But workers feel that if they're not there, they're either showing a poor work ethic or letting their colleagues down. "As we create more efficient workplaces, there (are) fewer hands on deck," he said.

Kevin O'Brien, president and chief executive officer of Partners in Care Corp., a Somerset-based health-care business, said he tried to set up a new mantra in his office: "When in doubt, call out."

Employees who feel good enough to work but are still infectious are encouraged to use laptops from home to do their jobs.

"We're a small office," O'Brien said. "We have nine people here. I can't afford to have 100 percent of them sick for two weeks."

But even though the employees work on health issues such as this every day, getting them to stay home is not easy. "They had to be reminded (to stay home)," said Bruce C. Dees, chief operating officer of Partners in Care.

"Here is a proactive employer, and they still had a problem with this," O'Connor pointed out. "I think the problem is the prevalent attitude of our society today."

One of the ways to combat is through leadership, said Stone of Corporate Wellness. "One of the problems is the manager who says, "Don't come to work if you're sick,' when they come in sick as a dog," she said. "There's a lot of "Do as I say, not as I do' going on."

"Presenteeism"

Employers are already well aware of the costs of absenteeism, O'Brien said. "We need to orient employers to the risks of "presenteeism,' " he argued, using the word to describe the phenomenon of workers who come to work sick and can't operate at their normal levels.

And it's an even trickier issue for people who earn low hourly wages and get no paid sick time, Dees said, because the pressure for them to work is even greater. "If they don't come in, they don't get paid," he noted.

If you can get people to stay home, that still doesn't address the issue of disease prevention. For that, the lessons are all pretty common-sense, said Daigle of the CDC.

"It's the same things your mother yelled at you about all the time," Daigle said. Wash your hands frequently, use disinfectant wipes on your work surfaces (such as your desk, phone and keyboard) and get a flu shot, he and others advised.

The smallest droplets can lead to infections, said Crawford of Meridian. "Have you ever seen anyone sneeze into a strobe light?" he asked. "It's a shower of respiratory secretions."

Stone of Corporate Wellness said many people don't wash their hands properly. A good washing involves soap and warm water and rubbing your hands together thoroughly for about 20 seconds, or roughly the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday to You" twice, she said.

Flu shots are also very important, Stone said. About 20 million to 25 million people get a flu immunization shot at work, she said.

A 2000 study by the American Medical Association found flu shots save companies an average of $46.85 per employee in terms of productivity. That was a bargain at the time, because the average flu shot cost a company about $15 per employee. The price has risen since then to about $25, Stone said.

"I'm concerned that we'll get to the point that flu shots are too expensive," she said.

But O'Connor, of Egan, Amato & O'Connor, said he doesn't think that will be the case. "If we can promote a health-awareness campaign, the return on investment on that far exceeds the cost of investment," he said.