When You’re Sick Don’t Come In!
Being the person that came in whilst unwell and ended up infecting the office with the flu or a bug is not the person to be! No matter how big your workload is, or how quickly that deadline is creeping up on you, coming to work when you’re sick isn’t fair on the rest of the team or your clients.
- Pick up the phone and call your manager and let them know that you’re not well – If you have access to work from home and feel up to completing some tasks then do so, otherwise communicate where your work is up to, then switch off and rest up!
- As a leader it’s important to lead by example and to communicate to the team what your expectations are around sickness and work. Creating a clear understanding of company procedures + expectations around work when someone is unwell.
- Going into work despite being sick is ineffective. Besides running the risk of infecting your colleagues, your productivity is dramatically reduced, you may end up needing to take multiple days off for over doing it. Pushing on with work whilst sick just isn’t worth it.
- It’s ok to be unwell and take a break – The work will still be there tomorrow so encourage, don’t discourage someone or yourself to take the time to get well.
- Have a clear procedure around who staff should contact and how to contact them when they are unwell, as well as outlining your policy on sick pay, medical certificates etc…
We all get sick at some point, so recognise when your not well and take the time to get better. Have a ‘work from home plan’ for your team to follow and set expectations and obligations with the team, so they know a clear procedure to follow when they are unwell.
