Employees Coming to Work Sick

System

Does anyone have a policy regarding people coming to work sick? I've been listening to a purchasing agent hack and cough all day. The poor girl should be at home, and I don't want whatever she has to spread around the office. We have others who come in sick just for the attention but who might be contagious. Ideas?

Parabeagle

We have a policy that specifically permits supervisors to send employees home if they feel they are not well enough to work. The biggest issue you may encounter with such a policy, though, is that a supervisor is usually reluctant to send an employee home because then he/she is down one body.

Gillian3

This happens everywhere and I don't think that people have policies. At some point, the person shouldn't be there, and someone should say - go home.

AnneHa

Like Gillian3 we have no formal policy, but supervisors can and do send employees home if there is a concern. If the 'illness' is a seasonal allergy thing or something we let it go. But strep, pinkeye, etc., - well, you've got to go home.

Anne in Ohio

deniseE

You may also run into the situation that the ee has no available sick leave...and cannot afford to be home without pay. That happens here a good bit. BUT if the person is clearly not fit to work...our supervisors have the authority to send them home....failure to follow orders is then insubordination.

Paul in Cannon Beach

We find that sickness spreads quickly among staff so we try to send people home and tell them to stay home until they are feeling better.

Of course, its tough to be consistent. Who here hasn't come to work not feeling well but you come in anyways because of your workload.

I'd leave it up to the ee's supervisor to make that call.

HRinNH

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-23-04 AT 07:27AM (CST)[/font][br][br]In our office, it's not usually that an ee doesn't have any sick time left, the management is very stingy with the sick time. We don't accrue it, it is by management discretion (but alarms will go off if you reach 6-8 days).

Some employees have gotten harrassed (picked on) by management if they were out with a doctor's note and the flu for 3-4 consecutive days.

This is a very good topic especially after the long winter we've had here in the Northeast.

System

The same sick young lady is here again today, better but still not well. Her problem is her supervisor. He would rather slit his wrists than let her or anyone in her department be absent, even for a good reason. I think I'd better work on him. We're meeting later today, and afterward I think we should discuss this. Thanks for all your input!

ritaanz

Our employees know that if they to come sick we take 'em out to the back forty and shoot them.

Seriously, creating such a policy is difficult. The issue is one of common sense. But the longer I work in HR the less common sense I encounter. It should be the supervisor's responsibility to send a sick employee home.

hrtexas

Our policy also states that supervisors have the right to sent employees home if they feel the ee has something that might be transmitted to co-workers or if the ee cannot perform their job due to the illness.

SDDCHR

Send them home. You have to be concerned about the health and safety of others as well as the sick employee. If you don't send them home, you may have to worry about more then just one ee out sick!