Whether it’s the common cold or something much more serious like the recent outbreak of the Wuhan Coronavirus, concern about spreading illness and infectious diseases in the workplace is understandable. However, managing that fear and ensuring a safe workplace is paramount. Here are some ideas about how to communicate and manage concerns about illness in the workplace.
Contagious or communicable diseases can be transmitted when an infected person coughs or sneezes or has contact with blood or sexual fluids of another person, or when a person touches an object an infected person has used, such as a doorknob or computer mouse. Some infectious diseases can be transmitted to people from insects or animals but cannot spread from person to person.
Tips for managers:
Share accurate, current information. If a round of illness is causing concern in your workplace, sharing accurate information is the first step toward helping manage anxieties.
Offer reassurance and help employees stay focused. Be clear that your business takes health and safety seriously and will take appropriate steps to protect employees if need be. If your employees travel to a country or area of the U.S. where widespread infection has been reported, stay on top of updates from the State Department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization.
If an outbreak occurs in your community, give your team information about how your organization plans to handle the situation. Explain what human resources policies are in place and what type of medical leave and flexible work options exist. Also, implement procedures that will allow key business tasks to be delegated to others or completed remotely if people get sick.
Help employees stay focused on their work and maintain normal routines, as much as possible. Maintain consistent, clear communication with employees, HR, and senior leaders to help your team stay calm, focused, and productive. Because many of these diseases are rarely, if ever, contagious, a little reassurance and accurate information can go a long way toward helping everyone keep the situation in perspective.
If one of your team is worried that they may have been exposed to an infectious disease, speak to your HR department about how to protect the employee’s privacy and when an employee may return to work after recovering or traveling to a country where the employee may have been exposed to an outbreak.
Finally, if an employee refuses to come to work for fear of being infected with a highly contagious disease, the employee's refusal may be protected under state or federal laws. Check with your company attorney or HR department for current laws and policies in your state.