It’s that time of year again….the kids are back at school, students are off to university and many others are returning to the workplace for the first time in a long time. And it’s the season where we pick up colds, coughs and flu. We can’t help it, it is inevitable. Perhaps more inevitable this year than most given that we have followed Boris’ advice and stayed at home for what seems like an eternity thus meaning that we have been less exposed to the usual everyday germs and we are perhaps not as immune to them as we once were.
There’s the inevitable concern….is it COVID? If you have symptoms consistent with COVID take the PCR test and if its positive, stay at home and isolate. Follow your employer’s sickness absence policy and tell your employer, even if you are able and feel well enough to work from home. Your employer may need to deep clean your work area or work place in the event that you have tested positive. Employers have a duty to report if there is COVD outbreak in the workplace. There is also a risk that you may have passed it on to colleagues and your employer will want to ensure that contingency plans are in place to keep the business running if other members of staff also contract COVID.
But there’s a very good chance that you might be feeling under the weather and it’s not COVID, it’s just your regular common cold. We are hyper sensitive at the moment about the prospect of spreading and catching germs from others. Masks, hand sanitiser and social distancing. Should you or shouldn’t you attend the workplace? That’s a very difficult question and ultimately one only that a qualified medical practitioner can answer by certifying you as unfit for work. However, a common sense approach it to be advised to both employers and employees. If lockdown proved anything, it is that many of us can work from home. If the employee can still work productively from home, then surely it is sensible to allow them to do so rather than forcing them to attend the workplace? They will feel more comfortable and are likely to be more productive. It lessens the risk of spread of a common cold/flu virus around the workplace and therefore lessens the risk of further staff absences. Surely that it a good thing all round?
The flip side to that however, is that some employees will continue to work when really they are not well enough to do so. They may not be sufficiently ill to contact their GP (and let’s face it, its difficult enough to get an appointment at the moment) but sometimes flu and cold viruses can be very debilitating albeit their worst effects only last a few days. Whereas pre-COVID, an employee may have called in sick, they may now feel under pressure to continue work whilst ill. Because they can work from home; they feel they should work from home. The risks here are that the employee’s productivity may not be good, they are more likely to make mistakes in their work and they risk prolonging the effects of their illness. Sometimes we need to rest and re-cooperate rather than being a long suffering “trooper.” Again, common sense dictates that maybe a day or two’s rest on sick leave is better than struggling to work and prolonging the illness ultimately taking longer to recover.
Whilst there will always be those who take advantage; we should be working from the premise that individuals are responsible enough to know when they are well enough to work and when they are not.
The same goes for the current fuel “crisis.” Pre-COVID this would have meant that those without alternative forms of transport would be unable to attend work and unless they took holiday, they would have to have taken unpaid leave. Now, for many, working from home instead is a viable option.
If an employee does work from home, employers may be concerned that they haven’t got the same oversight of an employee’s work as they have whilst in the workplace. This is why its important to have Flexible Working and Hybrid Working policies in place which set various parameters for working from home This is something that we can assist you with. If you would like to have a chat, please drop me (slomas-fletcher@jacksons-law.com) or my colleague Paul (pclark@jacksons-law.com ), we would be happy to help. Alternatively, you can call us on 0191 2322574/01642 356500.
