In life, a lot of things are uncertain. There are certain aspects of our lives that we just can’t predict, no matter how hard we try. But, there are some aspects of life that are certain, and on of the things we can all be sure of is that we’ll get sick. Everyone gets sick from time to time, no one makes it through their whole life without falling ill once.
How does this relate to business? Well, if everyone gets sick, then a business owner must be aware that their employees will be ill at some point. Some people get sick and decide they still want to come into work. There are many reasons they do this, pride, money, etc. In the mind of a sick employee that goes to work, they’re doing your business a favour. They’re making an effort to come in when they should be in bed resting.
However, they can actually be causing some serious damage to your company. This post is going to talk about this issue and explain how sick employees can be a big problem for every business. Check out the points below for more information:
Sickness Leads To Sickness
When somebody in your business gets sick, it probably doesn’t seem like a big deal. So what if they have a cold, it’s nothing, right? If anything, you should encourage them to come into work because it’s only a minor illness, right? Wrong. What starts off as a minor cold can actually turn into something more damaging. You see, sickness leads to more sickness. If one of your staff is sick, and they come into your place of work, they can infect all of your employees. So, instead of only having one sick person, you now have an entire team of sick people to deal with.
This is a huge problem as the more sick people you have, the more germs there are on your premises. It means that small colds will quickly become a lot worse and cause your employees to feel even sicker as the germs are all breeding with one another. All of this happens because one person came in when they were feeling sick. Instead, you should encourage people to go on sick leave if they’re ill. It’s there for a reason, to let them take time off and recover. They still get paid, and your company doesn’t have someone in the building that will infect everyone else. As a business owner, you never want to give your employees time off as it reduces your workforce. However, look at it from this perspective. If you allow one person to take time off and recover from an illness, then they don’t make everyone else ill. But, force them to come in, they infect everyone, get everyone feeling very ill, and then you have loads of people all needing time off instead of just one person.
Sickness Restricts Performance
I’m sure everyone reading this has tried to work while they’re sick. It’s something we all attempt to do, as we feel bad just doing nothing. As an employee, we feel like we’re letting our employers down, and want to try our best to work hard. Likewise, I’m sure everyone that’s tried to work when they’re sick can testify that it isn’t easy at all! Even a minor sickness like a cold can seriously restrict your performance. It’s incredibly distracting as you start to think about your sickness instead of the work at hand. You focus on the aches and pains and the stuffy nose and the sore throat. If you gave someone the same workload when they’re sick and fully healthy, I guarantee there would be a substantial difference in quality and the amount of work done.
As a business owner, you can’t afford to have people working at half capacity when trying to run a successful company. It’s better to have four productive and completely healthy employees doing extra work than one ill person slowing everything down. Plus, revert back to the first point about sickness leading to more sickness. If someone makes everyone else sick, then you have a team of unproductive slow workers until they get better.
It’s obvious why business owners will encourage people to come to work when they’re ill. They don’t want to deplete their workforce and think it will be okay if they’re just a tiny bit sick. However, as the above points show, a single sick employee can wreak havoc on your business. You’re far better off encouraging them to take a day or two off to recover and return to work healthy and motivated.
