How To Save Yourself When Everyone Else In The Office Is Getting Sick

A scenario that we have all experienced is an office full of sick people. Somehow people think they are doing a good job if they come to work sick. Unfortunately, exactly the opposite is true. The last thing that the office really needs is the whole employment-base to be sick and doing a subpar job. Perhaps they would rather use their sick days for a vacation, but they are called sick days for a reason. If it was up to us, you would not get paid for days you came in sick. Luckily, it’s not up to us, so here are some things you can do to try and remain healthy.

Wash your hands

Wash your hands with soap and water frequently. Germs from other sick people can linger on any surface and can transfer to your hands. The best thing you can do is keep your hands clean. You can also buy those little bottles of alcohol and hand sanitizer as they are very handy, but soap and water works just as well.

Don’t touch your face

If you really need to touch your face, see point one. Wash your hands immediately before you touch your face, especially if you are going to touch your nose or your eyes. Germs transfer from surfaces to your hands, then from your hands into your body through your face. Don’t give the germs an easy trip.

Clean your desk

Really, clean everything. There was a test done in Congress once, where a scientist put a petri dish on every chair and had someone with a cold speak for 15 minutes from the podium. Every single petri dish was infected with that cold virus. So all you need is one person in the office and every surface in the office will be covered with germs that can make you sick. So clean your desk multiple times a day.

Water

Make sure you stay well hydrated. When your nose and eyes are dry, they lose some of the protections they have from viruses. Make sure you drink extra water. This also helps with your immune system overall.

Move

If someone is sick and working next to you, it’s probably a good idea to see if you can temporarily find a new workspace. Perhaps ask a manager if there is somewhere else you can work. A good manager will understand this. If you are unable to work somewhere else, as much as it might look silly, you can wear a face mask like they do in the hospital. This is quite common and done all over Asia. Looking silly is a lot better than getting sick.

Get rid of stress

Although this is not a direct protection against people sick in your office, it will help you from getting sick all the same. If you keep the stress as low as possible it will help your immune system fight anything that might want to take you down. Stress can weaken your immune system and make it easier to get sick. Although it’s not always easy to avoid stress, 5 minutes of simple breathing meditation can do wonders.

Zinc

Take some extra zinc. You can buy zinc pills from the local pharmacy. Zinc is one of the few things that has been clinically proven to help with the cold and the flu. Zinc helps your immune system. It is a simple and inexpensive supplement.

We hope this helps you avoid getting sick in the future when you are stuck in the office. Although it may be just a cold or the flu, it’s better to treat it like the plague, because when you are sick, it sure feels like the plague. We wish you the best of health.