H and L Office Furniture advises a sick-free office for increased productivity

Every year, it can be counted upon that thousands of Australians are going to be inflicted with illness during the flu season, and many of them are going to report to the office sick and sharing that flu with their colleagues. While many employers prefer that an employee be in than out of the office while collecting pay, there are times when having them call in sick is healthier for the company’s bottom line.

The simple fact is that employees who are sick are often forced to wrap themselves up, pack some medicine and come in if it is humanly possible. So they crawl into their workspace with their runny nose, cough and fever. They are not going to be as prolific in the office because their body is wracked with the coughing, sniffling, and miserable mind-set that go with a cold or flu.

Even at their best effort, a sick employee is only going to be able to deliver only 50 percent to three quarters of their regular work load. For an employer, that means you are paying for a full work day but getting less in ROI in terms of maximizing time and productivity.

The one thing they will be productive at is spreading germs. Each time they cough or sneeze they are sending thousands of germs into the air, germs that the rest of your personnel will then breathe in. They may have to deliver documents to the desk of a manager or a co-worker.

With that action they will be leaving behind more germs. If they have to put something into or take things out of an office furniture such as a filing cabinet or an office desk, their germ-covered hands are going to be all over the furniture’s handles, waiting to be transferred onto the hands of the next person to retrieve a file.

Every piece of office furniture they touch is going to be infected. Chances are in just a few days you are going to start seeing more cases of illness in the office as the germs from that one person start to infect other personnel. If they too try to come to work while sick, the cycle continues with more germs being spread about the office, and a lot of non-productive employees at their chairs and desks suffering through their workload. Eventually, the illness will catch up and those workers will be calling in, using a number of sick days that could have been avoided if the employer had just had that first person stay home until they were in good health.

To avoid having an office that goes from just one sick person into a place with a flu pandemic, companies need to formulate guidelines for illness, letting employees know that it is alright to be and call in sick. According to H and L Office Furniture, these guidelines should encourage employees to know when their sickness is transmittable and monitor their symptoms which could range from fever to a sore throat. Then they should avoid the office until they are free of symptoms for at least one full day.

Posted on: Workspace

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H and L Office Furniture advises a sick-free office for increased productivity

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