Health is wealth, they say. This is not limited to the individual alone. Each of us associates with a great many people every day of our lives, in the workplace, in school, at cafes and restaurants when we meet friends, and of course, with family at home. We travel in close confines such as buses, trains and metros. Indeed, no one goes through life alone, where we can blissfully think that our ailments are all ours alone.
There are a great many contagious illnesses that we come in to contact with throughout our lives. From the more serious ones such as Avian Flu and Swine Flu, which plagued many countries across the world about a decade ago, to the much more common influenza, many are the illnesses that can be transmitted from one person to another.
It has been many years now since good health has been promoted in the workforce. Regular health checks are encouraged and even paid for by many companies in a bid to ensure that all staff remain strong and healthy. Aside from the obvious reason for this practice, healthy staff members also means better productivity in the workplace.
One of the most contagious illnesses the world over is influenza. While there is a slim possibility that influenza can lead to a very serious level, most of the time it is merely an annoying feeling of sickness, headache, body pains and runny nose often accompanied with a nagging cough. A few days of rest and you’re generally back to normal. But getting rest is a must, and for this, one must stay away from his or her regular activities of work and study and take it easy.
From the management’s point of view though, this absence of staff members, even if it’s just one member, it slows down productivity and effectiveness in the organization. This is why it is now becoming commonplace in many offices that the quadrivalent flu vaccine in Australia is given to staff annually.
Not only does the flu take its victim away from the office for up to one week, most often this would be after he or she has inadvertently infected at least another two of three colleagues while the virus was incubating within his or her body. Unintentional because during this incubating period, there are no visible symptoms which would make host aware that he or she is ill. Therefore, it makes every good sense that employers sponsor and provide the flu vaccine to every staff.
Not only would this practice provide protection to the entire organization, by extension, even the families of these staff members will be kept safe from the nagging influenza virus. Need we say more to convince you?