Alison Martin summarizes a survey of Quebec workers which found (among other things) that 33% of men would show up for work even if they or a family member had H1N1:
According to a poll of Quebec workers, many employees in Quebec would still show up for work even if they had the H1N1 flu virus.
Close to one-quarter of respondents to the poll conducted in September 2009 on behalf of the Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés said that they would still go to work even if they or a member of their household had the H1N1 flu virus. This attitude is even more prevalent among men, with one in three (33%) reporting that they still intended to go to work if they or a relative caught the virus.
Close to 60 per cent of respondents said that they show up for work even when they really aren’t feeling well.
“We’ve already noted that employees in Quebec tend to show up at work even when they’re ill. They don’t seem to be sufficiently aware of the risks of such behaviour, which in the end benefits neither the employee nor the employer, and definitely should be stopped,” explained Florent Francoeur, CHRP, Ordre president and CEO.
The question was clearly worded to elicit the most newsworthy headline: it’d be an odd family if everyone stayed home if even one person in the family was ill . . . and a family with limited long-term employment prospects. Private sector employers tend not to have the same kind of generous sick time provision that public sector employees get, so employees don’t tend to take as much sick time as civil servants.
For many workers, if they don’t show up for work, they don’t get paid. This is especially true at lower income levels, where missing a few days pay can be a severe economic dislocation.
