November 19, 2012

Can Seattle's sick leave law restore balance to office life?

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Can you feel the change in the air? That magical time that brings us all together and reminds us of our shared humanity? Yes, cold and flu season is now upon us, so you'd better start decking the office halls with facial tissues and hanging the hand sanitizers with care.

Nagging illnesses are an annoying fact of office life each winter, but this year should be a bit different. This is the first cold and flu season that will be subject to Seattle's new Paid Sick and Safe Time policy, which went into effect on Sept. 1. With the ordinance, Seattle joins San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut as the only municipalities that mandate the accrual of paid sick time for all private-sector workers within their boundaries.

When I was an office worker, one of my pet peeves was seeing co-workers who clearly needed to stay home drag themselves into work -- sniffling, coughing and looking like the walking dead -- either out of selfishness or some undeserved sense of irreplaceability. Most of the time, this led to co-workers catching the illness or the sick worker merely limping through the day. (I'll admit that, back in my 20s, when I thought I was indestructible, I was one of those delusional "I'm-not-sick" Nyquil warriors.)

This trend of presenteeism, as it is known, can be even more costly to businesses than absenteeism through illness. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), businesses nationwide lose an estimated $180 billion each year due to low productivity from sick workers and lost work from illness spreading through multiple employees.

Some small businesses have complained about the ramifications of the sick-leave requirement, saying it will eat into their already thin profit margins, create more bureaucratic headaches and discourage them from hiring more workers. There is also a fear that a new generation of Ferris Buellers will take advantage of the sick leave to steal extra paid holidays.

The truth is, faking being sick has been around since sick leave was first offered, and this law will do nothing to change that. CEPR data show that about 40 percent of American workers in the private sector -- and 80 percent of low-wage workers -- don't have any sick pay, meaning roughly 40 million people nationwide must choose between earning a day's pay or staying home. With this law, the portion of these people who work in Seattle will at least not have to risk their jobs to take care of themselves or their families.

It's still too early to determine the impact of the Paid Sick and Safe Time policy on Seattle businesses, but I'd love to hear from your own experiences so far. Has this policy improved the work-life balance where you work? If you're a business owner, have you been negatively affected by the extra regulations?

Whatever your opinion is in this debate, let's hope for a shorter cold and flu season and a healthier new year for all.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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co-workers, health, paid time off, productivity, sick days, work/life balance