For Keith Baumwald and his co-workers at Shoplet.com, an online office supply retailer, it’s all about sanitizing. In their Financial District office, there are dispensers of hand sanitizer in the entry and the sales department, hand wipes on the coffee machines, and personal Purell bottles on every desk. Masks and gloves are available, if it comes to that.
The hygiene blitz has been “positive for morale,” says Baumwald, a 32-year-old marketing analyst. The message, he says, is that “everyone’s looking out for each other.”
As the arrival of fall brings mounting fears of a looming swine flu epidemic — one that could infect as much as half the US population this fall and winter, according to a presidential panel — Baumwald’s employer is hardly the only one preoccupied with disinfecting and otherwise battening down the hatches.
If the swine flu gathers force in the coming months, not only will city workplaces be on the front lines of the battle in terms of keeping the H1N1 virus from spreading, but employers could be coping with a decimated work force, between the sick and those afraid of infection.
“It’s going to be a big problem,” says Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor at New York University School of Medicine and an expert on flu transmission. “In a worst-case scenario, this could paralyze the economy.”
Which means the concerns of forward-thinking employers go beyond germ transmission and include rethinking or clarifying sick-leave policies and making contingency plans for operating during a pandemic. Steps urged by the federal government last month include cross-training employees to fill in for absent co-workers, putting infrastructure in place that would allow workers to telecommute and making plans for staggered shifts, which would reduce crowding in workplaces and allow people to avoid commuting during peak hours.
Many companies are lagging behind, though, according to a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPS) study released last week. Two-thirds of businesses said they’d face severe operational problems if half their workforce were out with swine flu for two weeks.
“Businesses need to start planning how to adjust their operations to account for greater absenteeism and to slow the spread of H1N1 in the workplace,” said Robert Blendon of HSPH.
Among the issues highlighted in the survey are sick-leave policies. Most employers don’t offer paid leave for employees who have to care for a child who’s sick or whose school or day care is closed; many also require that absent workers provide a doctor’s note, which may be hard to come by during an epidemic.
Such policies are going to have to bend, says employment attorney John Robinson, a partner with Fowler White Boggs.
“Though many employers have rigid sick-day rules, they’re going to have to have a little more ‘give’ this season,” he says.
They also need to make accommodations for remote workers, such as testing in advance to make sure staffers can access e-mail and computer networks from home, says Linda Conrad, who’s overseeing such actions as director of strategic risk management for Zurich Financial Services.
And, of course, employers are taking additional steps to keep workers healthy, going beyond hand sanitizer and flu shots. J.P. Morgan Chase, for example, is providing a nurse-staffed hot line that employees can call with questions about the virus; others are providing staff and their families with Tamiflu.
Sandra Holtzman, owner of EHR Empowerment Consortium, a small startup in Union Square that puts physicians in touch with stimulus package monies, has stepped up cleaning efforts, making sure all surfaces and phones are scrubbed regularly.
It’s a smart move, says Dr. Charles Gerba, author of “The Germ Freak’s Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu,” who recommends targeting areas including desktops, shared phones and computer equipment, photocopy and fax buttons, light switches, and coffee and food preparation areas.
Holtzman is also encouraging her workers to get enough sleep and not overexert themselves.
“If my partner or I became ill, we’d be in trouble. We wouldn’t be able to close deals,” says Holtzman. “We can’t afford to be sick.”
Some workers at companies with no formal swine flu plans are creating their own. Eric Medina, 43, works in sales for a Spanish-language television network with no strategy for an outbreak. But he’s not too worried about an extended illness.
“I won’t take extreme measures, but I’ll take some precautions like handwashing and avoiding sick people,” says Medina. “If a problem presents itself, I’ll work from home.”
Christine Roberts, a temp at a Midtown accounting firm, lives in fear of getting ill. With no health insurance or paid sick time, a few days at home could spell financial disaster for her.
Last year Roberts, who is in her 30s, got a flu and was unable to get out of bed for two days.
“Those two days cost me almost $500 in wages and $50 in taxi fare to the clinic that took my then-health insurance,” she says.
But for now, Roberts is washing her hands compulsively and hoping for the best. If she does come down with swine flu, she’ll be back at the office.
“I have no choice but to go to work every day, via subway, whether I’m ill or not. I can’t afford to go to a doctor or take unpaid time off,” she says.
A bill was recently introduced to the City Council that would offer relief to workers like Roberts, by mandating that all employers offer paid sick days (see sidebar). But even employers who already offer sick time may find that convincing ailing workers to stay home is a challenge in a hard-driving city like New York.
Tom, who works for a large Midtown company (and didn’t want his real name used), admits that when he got the swine flu from his daughter last spring, he kept mum and went to work anyway. Deadlines were looming, he reasons, and nobody was available to pick up the slack — and the much-feared illness turned out to be pretty mild.
“I technically should have stayed home,” he says. “But I was fine, and I don’t think anyone got it from me.”
The question of whether to check out for several days while not terribly ill is one workers — from Type A sorts who can’t stop working to those worried about layoffs — will answer for themselves this fall.
For the record, what they should do, unequivocally, is stay home.
“We have three tips for workers who come down with flu,” says Roslyn Stone, chair of the workplace flu prevention group at the Centers for Disease Control. “Don’t work sick, don’t come back to work before you’re better, and handwashing, handwashing, handwashing.”
Additionally, Stone advises taking an extra day at home even after starting to feel better.
“With flu, you should never be out for a single day. Stay home until you’ve been fever-free and with most symptoms gone for 24 hours. Most people will be out sick three to four days.”
For all the concern, so far the swine flu has been a relatively mild virus, and fears of it mutating into a more aggressive strain haven’t been realized. So for the uninfected, it’s important to stay calm, says Siegel of NYU, noting that worrying too much about infection can be more of a problem than the virus itself.
“We’re afraid of the unknown and the unseen, and we personalize the risk,” he says. “Fear spreads faster than flu.”