Flu in the workplace

Fighting the Flu in the Workplace

According to the U.S. government Center for Disease Control/NIOSH website, coughing, sneezing, talking, and breathing produce an aerosol of invisible airborne particles that can carry influenza viruses.

BREATHING is enough to spread the flu?!?

It gets even scarier when you read statements from people who felt sick and still came to work. “I did not think I was contagious or could make other people sick”.

This explains why:

- annual direct costs of influenza (flu) — doctor’s office visits, medications — in the United States are an estimated $4.6 billion
- flu causes U.S. employees to miss approximately 17 million workdays due to flu, at an estimated $7 billion a year in sick days and lost productivity.
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How to safeguard your employees — and your bottom line?

Work with your cleaning service to be sure every area and surface in your facility is as clean as can be.

• This means using cleaning solutions that are made for sanitizing — chemistry that eliminates bacteria and virus spores from surfaces.
• Making sure all high-touch objects like phones, keyboards, door and cabinet handles are thoroughly treated.
• Making sure your heating and ventilating ducts are dust-free and functioning properly.
• Paying special attention to your floors. Sanitizing mopping for hard floors and HEPA filter vacuuming for your carpets.
• Install dispensers of sanitizing gel where ever it is convenient: restrooms; break rooms near the sink; even handy palm-size bottles on desktops. (Touching your eyes with contaminated hands is a major way for germs and virus to enter your body.)
• Make sure your staff knows the negative impact of coming to work when sick.

No one wants to stay home, but when employees are sick, they are contagious. 

The best way to minimize the impact of the flu on the workplace is to control it as much as possible. Sick employees should stay home and recover. If they are on the job the risk of infecting others is very great.

Urge your staff to consult with their medical professional on flu shots.

It is a personal decision and may not be for everyone, but the overall success rate is high.

Here’s hoping that we all can have a healthy winter!

If you’d like to discuss how NLC Solutions can help you attain a super clean and sanitary workplace please give us a call at
(908) 753-3900.