With flu, colds, and other ills of winter raging across the United States, many office workers are trying to keep from becoming ill, while dealing with infectious coworkers without insulting them.
According to the Wall Street Journal, employers say as many as one-third of their employees have had the flu recently, and a 2014 survey by OfficeTeam of office workers found that 7 in 10 came to work when they were sick. So, how do you protect yourself?
A person can spread the flu virus for a day before symptoms appear, and can be contagious for five to seven days later. Someone who is sick and is coughing, sneezing — or just talking — can infect others as far as six feet away, says the Wall Street Journal.
Some of us (57 percent) aren't afraid to speak up and tell a sick coworker to go home, according to a survey by the public health and safety organization NSF International, and others (36 percent) would refuse to shake the hand of a sick colleague. Some workers fight infection by keeping hand sanitizers on their desks, and other try to communicate with sick colleagues by email or phone, if possible.
Dr. Susan Rehm, medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., says that one of the most important precautions is to avoid being in confined spaces with sick coworkers.
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