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Nothing to Sneeze At
After the third sneeze in 15 minutes and a coughing fit or five, the boss swoops in and sends Sneezy home.
One-third of organizations send workers packing when they have the flu, according to a new survey on illness in the workplace. That's up from one-fifth last year.
Free flu shots were the No. 1 preventive measure, offered by 59 percent of employers, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's query of 418 employers. Another one-fifth offer shots on-site, but on the workers' dime, and one in 10 pay for off-site flu shots.
Those who get sick anyway may find workplaces more accommodating than in years past. That's because employers know the flu can be costly in lost productivity, especially when it knocks out many members of a team. One in nine employers provide illness-related telecommuting, more than double the number in 2007.
That could help. A separate survey for business-information company CCH found two-thirds of workers come to work sick because of their workloads, and more than half said they have no one to cover for them while they convalesce.
-- Vickie Elmer
