Presenteeism

I am in the throes of a miserable cold and I know just who I got it from. I showed up for a meeting Thursday and the woman I was meeting with stuck out her hand for a hearty handshake. Though I do try my best to avoid shaking hands in the winter months to avoid picking up bugs, once she made the gesture, I had to go through with the handshake. Of course I realized too late that she was a veritable font of illness-spreading germs, as she spent the rest of the meeting sniffling and hacking away with the most awful-sounding chest cough. Great. Every time she talked in my direction I cringed and tried not to inhale. I even surreptitiously rubbed some of the hand sanitizer that I carry in my bag all over my hands during the meeting, hoping it would catch any little creepy crawlies I might have picked up before they got me good.

I guess I wasn't lucky enough to avoid them, though. By Friday night I felt a tickle in the back of my throat, and by Shabbos I was a mess. I hope to be in better shape by the time I get back to the office on Tuesday, as I'd rather not pass on the joy of a miserable head cold to my coworkers, even if it the same consideration wasn't shown to me by my coworkers.

Interestingly, the Ny Times ran a piece last week on just this phenomenon of showing up to work sick:

Ailing employees are dragging themselves to work in increasing numbers, according to several studies. So widespread is the phenomenon that experts have invented a name, calling it presenteeism, the opposite of absenteeism.

The article notes that many workers show up sick because the companies that they work for provide inadequate sick leave. Unfortunately, instead of increasing employee productivity, these inadequate sick leave policies probably reduce productivity when employees who come to work sick spread their germs at the water cooler, copier and at every doorknob, causing their coworkers to fall ill. In many cases, the cause for employees showing up to work sick isn't a matter of lacking sick days, but an employee who needs to be in for an important meeting or to work on a project.

Either way, I am clearly a victim of the practice dubbed presenteeism. And I'm not a happy camper.