Should a cold keep you home?

I have always fought with the idea of weather to stay home from work when sick. Some companies are very progressive with this and others not so much. In my workplace it is expected that if you are sick you stay home and if you are well enough to work but nervous about getting people sick then you just telecommute (freedom of being an IT guy)

To help you decide, Sharon Horesh, MD, instructor of clinical medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, gives her advice.

Just keep this in mind: “There’s no antibiotic that can get rid of the common cold or flu or stomach virus,” says Horesh . “That’s my pet peeve … antibiotics only work with a bacterial infection … bacterial bronchitis, pneumonia, strep throat, earache, pink eye.”

Also, be careful about which medications you take for the common cold, says Nathan Segall, MD, a private practice allergy specialist in Atlanta.

The overwhelming majority reach for over-the-counter antihistamines, he says. But beware: Even if it’s a so-called “non-sedating antihistamine” it could cause sleepiness and mental fogging, says Segall. “Some individuals will be more likely to have these side effects than others will.”

So the best thing to do with Flu season coming is to make a decision between your coworkers. No one wants to get sick, no one wants to be seen as dogging it and at the same time any abuse of sick time puts pressure on everyone to be at work, no matter how sick they are.

Set a meeting and have the following agenda.

1. When do you decide on sick time?

2. How sick is sick enough to stay home?

3. Are you expected to get certain work deliverables done from home?

4. Set a next step meeting to decide if things are going well or if there are abuses

This kind of idea is great in small workplaces. We are all aware of how you can be sick one day and the next week everyone has caught your cold or flu. Make sure that your workplace has lots of antibacterial stuff and lots of hand washing areas and also be sure to keep your kitchen area, if you have one, clean all of the time.

This kind of planning can radically affect your health this winter as we are all shut in indoors and can not get ourdoors often enough.

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Tags: allergy, antibiotics, Atlanta, bacterial infection, bronchitis, common cold, earache, Emory University School of Medicine, instructor, instructor of clinical medicine, Nathan Segall, pneumonia, private practice allergy specialist, Sharon Horesh

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