Surviving the sick-outs,
and managing your cold

With Ann Humphries, ETICON

(CNN) -- Gesundheit!

Maybe you remember that sad moment in "Les Miserables" when the young revolutionary, Marius, sings about the comrades he has lost on the barricades in Paris. He's in the pub they used to frequent. And he sings about "empty chairs and empty tables."

QUICK VOTE

Not that you don't love each and every colleague deeply, are you being left to do too much of the work amid sick calls this season?
Yeah. I can't even remember what a few of my co-workers look like, they've been out so much.
Don't ask me, I've called in sick a lot of times so far, I don't know how things are going at the office.
Nope. All under control. I'm doing the filing, the phones, the mailings, the sorting and leading all the meetings in addition to my regular job. What could be more fun?
View Results

Well, all over the place -- especially in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year -- workplaces look like small re-stagings of "Les Miz." Marius might feel right at home among the chairs, desks, cubicles and drive-through windows left empty by sick calls.

To call in sick or not to call in sick? That's another play -- less music and dancing, too -- but a good question. We all know that while plenty of our colleagues are falling in the onslaught of flu and colds during the winter, a lot of them are just faking it.

Here at CNN.com/career in November, we covered the results of a Harris Interactive/CCH Incorporated study which indicated that only 40 percent of "sick calls" in the workplace may be caused by illness. The human-resources representatives surveyed by the study attributed 21 percent of sick calls to family issues; 20 percent to personal needs; five percent to stress; and 14 percent to the mindset of some employees that they're somehow entitled to take time off.

The upshot of that survey's results -- gleaned not by Ann Humphries and ETICON, mind you, but by Harris and CCH -- is that three of every five sick calls may be one of your cohorts who feels fine but is perfectly happy to leave you singing stuff from "Les Miz" while they frolic on a "sick day." If you'd like to read our report on that story, by the way, it's called "Who are you covering for today? Playing hooky."

And what many workers forget, you know, is that faking a sick call doesn't hurt that management you may feel so bitter about -- it hurts your poor co-workers, the ones left surrounded by empty chairs and tables, scrambling to keep the company going while you visit that big electronics show. Or the spa. You know who you are.

Let's mention the practice of bringing a sick child to work. Not good. It's one thing to bring a child to work because he or she is out for a short time. But a day-long issue may be a real problem for the staff. The child may infect everyone at work. And the child needs some consideration -- if a kid is sick, work is hardly the place.

But in many cases, we don't want them in, do we? No, not just because they annoy the hang out of everybody, but also because if they're sick, they may be contagious. They could take down the whole staff with a virulent enough bug.

And if they're truly sick but not contagious and come in, the experience may be unpleasant enough to wish they'd faked a little stay-at-home for the day.

CNN: Lest we worry ourselves sick about this whole situation, we turned to the always hale and hardy Ann Humphries, president of ETICON, for some healthful guidance.

Ann Humphries: Consider that in schools, if you run a fever, you can't come. Good rule of thumb. If you're running a fever, that's definitely a time to stay home because you're likely contagious.

If a doctor has given you a course of antibiotics, that may stop the contagion, but let that be your doctor's call. If it's an allergy situation, you may just have to operate with it. Or if you're just going through a cold but aren't contagious and feel strong enough to work, you can get to work and avoid leaving your co-workers doing everything you were supposed to do.

Management needs to keep an eye out for repetitive sick calls. Those can be a sign that someone's having too many days off -- or even "mental health days" -- and leaving the rest of the staff in the lurch too frequently.

That includes having sick children at home. If it's keeping parents from work too much, the employees who do come in are having to cover too often. Some attention from management may be needed. Supervisors need to show some muscle in these situations, that's part of the job.

GET WELL QUICKLY. PLEASE.

Like so many of the issues we address here in Corporate Class, the problems of sick calls have been raised by readers who let us know (cough, cough) about it. Your turn. Get a sinus pill inside you, remember that summer will come -- or if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, remember your turn will come -- and give us a holler. Have a workplace issue you'd like to see addressed? Let us know and we'll consider taking it on here in the column. Just use our handy submission form to talk to us, and we'll say ... bless you.

As long as we're talking about children for a moment, let's also mention the practice of bringing a sick child to work. Not good. It's one thing to bring a child to work because he or she is out for a short time. But a day-long issue may be a real problem for the staff. The child may infect everyone at work. And the child needs some consideration -- if a kid is sick, work is hardly the place.

When the cold sufferer in question is the adult worker, though, you have to think about how to "manage" your symptoms while at work.

Sorry to be so basic here, but people do need to hear this. Some fundamental hygiene comes to mind.

• You keep tissues around, just as you might keep breath mints around.

• Wash your hands. Be careful about shaking hands -- you can always say to a sick person, "Well, I'm just going to admire you from afar today." Make a sympathetic joke of it, but try not to have direct contact with someone who's trying to shake a cold -- or you'll be trying to shake it, too.

Faking a sick call doesn't hurt that management you may feel so bitter about -- it hurts your poor co-workers, the ones left surrounded by empty chairs and tables, scrambling to keep the company going while you visit that big electronics show. Or the spa. You know who you are.

• Then there are the sounds. Post-nasal drip. The coughing. Loud nose-blowing. Use lozenges. Keep the nose-blowing around others to a discreet minimum. Remember proper disposal of your tissues.

The bottom line is that you need to be there -- and not leave your associates doing all your work for you -- if you sincerely are well enough to be there. But if you're sick, try to manage it well. And if you're going to make everybody else sick (and then get left doing their work, remember), make that legitimate sick call and get past the contagious stage.

Next week: Handling longer-term and more serious times out of work: surgery, substance abuse, serious illness, family deaths.

Ann Humphries, founder and president of ETICON, Inc. and a Certified Professional Consultant to Management, includes several Fortune 500 companies among her clients. She's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Money, and on CNN, CBS and Lifetime TV. You can contact her at www.eticon.com

-- Interview, Porter Anderson

'Empty chairs and empty tables'

Surviving the sick-outs, and managing your cold

Surviving the sick-outs,
and managing your cold