"Keep Your Cold to Yourself"
The Business of Furniture - 11/30/16 Edition
Stephen Says Column

 Dear Stephen,

 
 It is getting to be that time of year when people start coming to work with bad colds, the beginnings of the flu, or whatever other sicknesses come up in the winter. I am not a germaphobe, but I am reasonable, and I do not want to get sick because my co-workers did not want to use a sick day. This drives me crazy! I have two young kids -- pre-school and 1st grade -- and they are always coming down with something, which means my husband and I are always getting something as well. I get enough germs passed along from my own kids. I do not need or want to get more from my co-workers, who are not children but sometimes act like them. I signed up to get my kid’s germs when I became a mother, but there was nothing in my company’s contract about my co-workers’ germs. When I know I am sick, I stay home. We have a generous sick day policy at work,  yet people seem like they do not want to use too many sick days, I guess, and so they come into work even when they are coughing and sneezing up a storm; and goodness knows what I sometimes hear in the ladies room. Nothing is worse than sitting near someone hacking up phlegm while they tell you they are fine and just need some water.
 What they need is to be quarantined at home! It gets me steamed to have to work around colleagues, who I otherwise like, who come to work clearly sick. Colds are contagious, right? That means that I can get sick. How come people cannot use common sense and recognize that they are not helping the company or themselves by coming to work sick? I just do not want to go near them. It seems like the most obvious thing in the world to me. It’s black and white. Are you sick? If the answer is yes, stay home. What do you think?
 
 Don’t Cough near my Coffee
 

 Dear Coffee,

 
 I hear this story all the time. There are people who come into work even when they should on their way to the hospital. As I understand it, it’s a combination of a few different things. Some people just love their jobs and an equal number just love getting out of the house, sick or not. Just as many do not realize that having a cold is a real sickness that you can pass along to others at work. (And YES, of course, a cold is contagious!) A whole lot of people do not think a cold is reason enough to stay home from work. Those people are wrong! I have heard from people who will go to work unless they have a fever. That is not a good measuring stick because colds can pass through an office as quickly as they run through a 2nd grade class. And no one wants to hear you hacking and coughing, either. Most bosses agree that they do not want sick people in the office. If you’re up to it and your job allows, you should always try to work from home, but that is a different issue for a different time. I have a binary test, which is very similar to yours. If I am not feeling well and am on the fence about whether or not to go into work, I ask myself if anyone at work would notice that I was sick. If I think even one person would notice, I get right back into bed.
 
 Then there are those people who are proud of their “never have taken a sick day” record, and wear it like a badge. Putting the absurd immaturity of this nonsense aside, it is not as if these people never get sick, they just come into the office and get everyone sick, even as they brag about never having missed a day of work. Their gall astounds me.
 
 Still more people are afraid of using too many sick days, and instead they store them like a squirrel does nuts fearing they may need them for a major illness that usually doesn’t come. Others like to exchange them for personal days, and so would rather come to work sick and not waste the day they could spend doing something else. I understand both these impulses, but gosh is it selfish. Bottom line is that in my own office I send someone home if I think they have a bad cold and may pass it along. I disguise it as caring for the employee and wanting them to get some rest and get better, if I need to. I do whatever I can to get them out. And I do care about them, but I also care about everyone else’s health as well! When you are sick, you are usually working at half power anyway. No boss wants that.
 
 Now, sick days are abused on the other extreme as well. I hear from as many bosses who tell me they have an employee who gets a paper cut and stays home from work. Two sides to every coin, I suppose. Let’s agree that there is a happy medium that is not too difficult to find. This isn’t rocket science, folks. If you have a cold or anything worse, or if your illness is otherwise contagious, stay out of the office. This rule isn’t only to care for yourself, but it is also common decency. When you hear someone say “I have the flu, and it is going around work,” there is a reason for that. Someone brought it there. If you’re going to bring anything into work, stick to cupcakes!
 
 Stephen
 
 You can send your workplace questions to Stephen at: 
 StephenSays@bellow.press.
 
 Questions selected to be answered, will appear in this column. Please use the Subject: Stephen Says for all emails. Stephen Viscusi is a bestselling author, television personality, and CEO of The Viscusi Group, global executive recruiters located in New York. Follow Stephen on Twitter @WorkplaceGuru, Like Stephen on Facebook; and follow him on LinkedIn.