Watching CNN's coverage of the continuing spread of the swine flu A (HIN1) virus, it strikes me again how fortunate those of us who work from home truly are.
I remember clearly those days when I went to work at the air traffic control tower and found that one of my crew partners for that day was sputtering and spewing germs all over our shared-use equipment – computers, radar, phones, microphones, etc.
Not only would I be pissed that the other controller apparently didn't care if he infected other members of the team but it detracted from my work as I concentrated more on germ eradication (wiping everything he'd use with Dettol) than on the task at hand.
In some instances those efforts to avoid infection would prove futile and I and others would get infected anyway… and if I was angry when I was put at risk, you can imagine how I felt once I got sick, especially considering we had an excellent paid sick leave program leaving absolutely no excuse to go to work sick. During those ‘working years' I invariably ended up with at least 1, if not 2, cold viruses per year – or up to 2 weeks of feeling like crap for no good reason.
Regarding the swine flu, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) is warning that “This is a serious event… If you have a fever and you’re sick or your children are sick, don’t go to work and don’t go to school.”
Unfortunately, most people in Mexico don't have the luxury of paid sick leave. Indeed, nearly half of private sector workers in the United States don’t have a single paid sick day. Take a day off sick and risk losing your job. So, off they go to work in crowded, poorly ventilated buses and subways potentially risking their lives so as not to risk their jobs – the situation made even worse by the current state of the economy.
Until legislation guarantees that workers receive an adequate number of paid sick leave days per year, that situation won't change and epidemics such as the swine flu will rage on.
And once again, this latest public health scare makes me feel so incredibly fortunate to work from home where I can control the amount of contact I have with the outside world… and it works.
In the 9 years since I quit my job and started working from home full-time, I have had only 2 colds (and I suspect I caught one of them on an airplane, but that's a topic for the travel blog. )