Should you call in sick to work?

In a tough economy you certainly don’t want to put your job in jeopardy, however, putting the health of everyone you work with in jeopardy might not be the better choice.

Not only is this cold and flu season but holiday stress and activity can take it’s toll, as well.

Make sure that you can maintain distance and avoid contact with others.

Wash hands often and try not to share office equipment.

Consider your job; serving food? Waiting on clients or supervising young children, immunocompromised or the elderly could make your illness a real health threat to others

A few more things to consider:

How well can you carry out your work duties?

If you’re feeling quite sick, “you’re going to have a hard time functioning and performing at your normal level,” Cummins says.

Are you contagious?

If you have a viral or bacterial illness, you’ll expose your coworkers and they in turn will infect others. Staying home when you’re sick helps to curb germs in the community. “It’s to contain the illness,” Cummins says.

Will resting at home help your body to overcome the illness?

“We see a lot of worsening symptoms because people will just not stop and rest. They want to go; they want to be able to do everything that they normally do,” Cummins says. “What they don’t understand is that they’re pushing themselves to the point where they’re actually a lot sicker at the end of two to four days than they would have been if they had just taken that first day off and let their body fight the infection.”

Are you taking medications that could impair your ability to think, work, operate machinery, or drive?

Let’s say, for example, that you’ve been prescribed Vicodin for back pain and it’s causing fuzzy thinking. “If you’re so sick that you’re using opiates or any controlled substance to control pain, you really need to stay home,” Cummins says. “You shouldn’t be driving, and you could have your performance impaired or it could even be dangerous.”

Do not touch anything in public bathrooms.

Studies show that door handles, public toilettes and many other public places are just as germ ridden as we all feared they were.

For all of us who have spent our lives hovering over toilettes and opening and closing doors with our elbows there is justification for this nearly neurotic behavior.

From December 2010 through last February, Archibald and his colleagues swabbed and cultured faucets, paper-dispenser levers, and door handles inside the bathrooms of four aircraft and 18 other crowded spots such as fast-food restaurants. Names of the businesses were not released. Among the types of microscopic critters commonly discovered were staphylococcus (which can cause fevers and chills) and bacillus (which can cause diarrhea).
“For several restrooms, the quantity of microorganisms was too numerous to count,” Archibald’s paper reports. “…To date, there have been virtually no quantitative or qualitative assessments of the range of bacteria contaminating public restrooms.”