Feeling Sick? Just Stay Home
Nearly everyone has come to work sick during their career-more than 70 percent of respondents to a recent Monster.com poll said they drag themselves to their jobs when they are under the weather. But for the 2009-2010 flu season, the federal government via presidential addresses, public safety announcements on YouTube, and children's television characters is loudly encouraging all workers to stay home if they are sick.
Why the sudden push to keep ill workers at home this fall? The 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus is "a brand new flu virus," said Lisa M. Koonin, MN, MPH, senior advisor on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) H1N1 taskforce. "Very few of us have immunity to it. Almost everyone is susceptible."
As children return to school across the country, more reports of H1N1 flu are cropping up, particularly in the southeastern states, where schools opened early in August 2009, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC director, during a recent news conference. And because a vaccine will not be available until at least mid-October 2009, Koonin said, it's particularly important that sick people stay home and not spread the virus to co-workers. Many employers already are changing their sick leave policies.
The good news, Frieden said, is that the H1N1 virus, also called swine flu, has not mutated to cause more severe illness or death. Countries in the southern hemisphere, where the winter flu season has drawn to a close, have not seen an increase in severity or deaths. However, in those countries, large numbers of people were ill and "hospitals were challenged to keep up," Frieden said. He asked employers not to require sick workers to obtain a doctor's note to return to work, as that would overwhelm busy doctors' offices this flu season. In fact, Frieden said, most people who contract the flu don't need to go to the doctor. He encouraged otherwise healthy people who come down with flu to stay home and not see a physician.
In an effort to keep health care workers healthy and safe, Frieden said, the CDC and the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) asked the Institutes of Medicine to report on what masks health care workers should use. The report recommends using fit-tested N95 respirators in accordance with OSHA guidelines. While healthy adults seem to recover relatively easily from the flu, children and adults with underlying serious health conditions or disabilities--including asthma, diabetes, cerebral palsy and other neurodevelopmental conditions—are affected more strongly and get sicker, Frieden said. Members of these populations should go to the doctor as soon as they start to feel ill, he said. Frieden added that otherwise healthy children and adults who have the flu and suddenly have difficulty breathing, or who recover from the flu and then get sick again, should also see a doctor right away. "We don't know for sure if [H1N1] flu will be more or less severe than seasonal flu", Frieden said. "But influenza can be a severe disease."
Other groups who are highly susceptible to and seem to get sicker from the H1N1 virus are pregnant women, children and young adults, Koonin said. They should be among the first people to receive the vaccine. Others at the front of the line for the shots should be caretakers of young children and health care workers, she added. "A vaccine is our most powerful tool for controlling flu because it gives us immunity," Koonin said. There will not be enough vaccine to immunize all 300 million residents of the United States right away, she said, which is why the CDC has identified these priority groups.
The new vaccine was undergoing clinical trials to test for safety and efficacy, she said, noting that the vaccine is being developed in the same manner as the seasonal flu vaccine has been for many years. "The seasonal flu vaccine is out now, and we really encourage businesses to host their own flu clinics and encourage workers to get their shot. Businesses could also consider giving workers time off so they can get the vaccine," Koonin said.
In the meantime, the best defense against catching and spreading the flu is to wash your hands often, cover your cough or sneeze, and stay home if you are sick, experts recommend. H1N1 flu has caused more than 8,800 hospitalizations and 550 deaths in 2009, the CDC reports. (SHRM's HR Week, 9/14/2009)
U.S. Worker Productivity at Six Year High
Workers are more productive, but employee earnings are falling, according to a recent report from the U.S. Labor Department. Productivity--basically the amount of work per hour--increased at an annual rate of 6.6 percent during the second quarter. That's the best performance since the summer 2003 and easily exceeded the 6.4 percent gain economists expected, according to the Labor Department.
Aggressive cost-cutting efforts helped boost the bottom line and kept companies operating, but labor costs declined at an alarming 5.9 percent. That's the largest drop since the second-quarter of 2000 and slightly more than the 5.8 percent decline a month ago. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the economy and lower pay could hurt the recovery. (Philadelphia Business Journal, 9/3/2009)
A Reluctance to Retire Means Fewer Openings
To the long list of reasons American companies aren't hiring - business losses, tight credit, consumer retrenchment - add the fact that many of their older workers are unable, or afraid, to retire.
In other parts of the developed world, people are retiring as planned, because of relatively flush state and corporate pensions that await them. But here in the United States, financial security in old age rests increasingly on private savings, which have taken a beating in the last year. Prospective retirees are clinging to their jobs despite some cherished life plans. As a result, companies are not only reluctant to create new jobs, but have fewer job openings to fill from attrition. For the now 15 million Americans looking for work - this lack of turnover has made a tough job market even tougher.
Consider Barbara Petrucci, a dialysis nurse who had expected to stop working soon, or at least scale back to part time. Now that her family savings have been depleted by market declines, she expects to stay on the job for a long, long time. "Retirement is kind of an elusive dream at this point," says Ms. Petrucci, 58, who works at an Atlanta hospital while her retired husband, Ned, 61, interviews for jobs (unsuccessfully, so far). "We tease at work about someday having to go around at the hospital with our walkers."
The diverted life plans of families like the Petruccis are an unintended economic consequence of the nation's sprawling 401(k) plans. These private retirement savings vehicles, designed 30 years ago as a supplement to traditional corporate pensions, have somewhat haphazardly replaced the old system, like an innocuous weed that somehow overgrew the garden.
As is apparent in this downturn, the economic effects of such an ad hoc system can be perverse. In boom times, when companies need more workers, the most experienced employees may decide to retire, taking comfort in their bloated 401(k)s, whose values typically fluctuate with the financial markets. Today, the reverse is happening in the first deep recession since the new accounts became so pervasive. A recent Pew Research survey found that nearly four in 10 workers over age 62 say they have delayed their retirement because of the recession. (Though the data omits some people who have retired and includes some who are still working, the Social Security Administration said that about 2.3 million people that age started collecting benefits last year.)
"One unappreciated side effect of the 401(k) system is that it's a sort of reverse automatic stabilizer," says Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at the New School. The recent retirement losses have prompted policy makers to discuss whether Americans need a stronger social safety net, not just in health care and unemployment benefits, but in retirement as well.
Economists say there are advantages to reducing the financial risk for individuals. Pooling investments, in some cases, allows workers to switch jobs more easily and helps lower fees associated with investment decisions, for example.
Alternatives include creating incentives for saving and for less risky investments through tax laws or other regulations. The Obama administration has proposed an opt-out retirement savings system, for example. And even before the crisis, some states developed plans for pooling private savings into voluntary, portable retirement accounts.
Though their pension systems may be strained, people in many countries with stronger safety nets are still exiting the labor force in lockstep despite the global recession. Last year in the United States, almost a third of people ages 65 to 69 were still in the labor force; in France, just 4 percent of people this age were still working or looking for work. After all, Europe isn't just the land of "socialized" medicine. It is also the land of "socialized" retirement plans, and like other automatic stabilizers, pensions help cushion the blow of an economic crisis.
Retirement income typically comes from a combination of three buckets: state pensions, corporate pensions and individual arrangements. In many other industrialized countries, that first bucket - state pensions - supports a large amount of retirees' income. The typical American receives just 45 percent of his preretirement wage through Social Security, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. By contrast, a worker in Denmark, which has one of the most comprehensive and generous retirement arrangements in the world, can retire with a state pension that is 91 percent of his salary. "The financial crisis hasn't affected me," says Jens Erik Soerensen, a 63-year-old in Hellerup, Denmark, who works as a researcher at Chempilots, a Danish company that develops polymers for use in the medical device industry. (New York Times, 9/2/2009)
A Jobs Crisis
All the talk of recession ending is confounded by one simple fact: The job market is not recovering. In September, the 22nd month since the recession began, an additional 263,000 jobs were lost, bringing the total number of unemployed to 15.1 million.
The losses were worse than August, when 201,000 jobs were lost, but better than July's 304,000. The unemployment rate rose to 9.8% from 9.7%.
Losses fell across the economy: 64,000 lost jobs in construction, 51,000 lost jobs in manufacturing, 39,000 lost jobs in retail trade and even 53,000 fewer government jobs, as local governments shrink. Though losses have slowed from their pace in the winter, spring and early summer, the outlook is not bright. A survey released this week of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs who employ 10 million people, said that despite some optimism about the overall economy, only 13% intended to increase hiring in the next six months.
Some sectors of the economy may finally be stabilizing. "The number of jobs in financial activities, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and information showed little or no change over the month," according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics that compiles the report. A separate report earlier this week shows that some regions of the country are much closer to stabilization than others. But widespread job losses affect every sector of the economy by reducing consumers' spending power, driving down tax revenues and even threatening the nascent recovery in housing.
Economists had expected the unemployment rate to rise to 9.8%, but had thought job losses would slow to 175,000, thus the report was significantly worse than expected.
The rise of joblessness, always a political problem for the White House, is especially unwelcome news for an administration that predicted its $787 billion stimulus package would halt unemployment at around 8%. Since its enactment, $86 billion has been paid out, and taxes have been lowered by $62 billion as a result of the bill's provisions, but this has been unable to stop job losses.
The headline unemployment rate does not include people who want jobs but have given up looking. Including these people, most of whom surely consider themselves unemployed, the rate rises to 11.1%. The broadest measure reported by the Labor Department also includes people who work part time but want full-time work. This measure, of underemployment, reached a high of 17%.
However, the economy's gross domestic product is likely increasing again, as a report earlier this week said that from April to June, the economy shrank by a less-than-expected 0.8%. In the third quarter, which ended Wednesday, the economy likely grew.
"The only factor that kept unemployment from rising higher was that 571,000 workers dropped out of the labor force," says Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
Even more sobering: a report this week from Rutgers University professors James Hughes and Joseph Seneca who noted that, even if the economy suddenly started adding 2,150,000 jobs a year (instead of losing more than 3 million), it would take until 2017 to get the rate all the way back down. (Forbes.com, 10/02/2009)
Employers Grapple With Rise in Workplace Suicides
When an employee came into work one day dressed in black and asked her co-workers in an offhand manner, "Don't you think this dress would look good in a coffin?" no time was wasted. "We took her right over" to a psychiatric hospital, said Jan Zoucha, vice president of human resources at the employee's firm, Lincoln, Nebraska-based Assurity Life Insurance Co.
Educating employees on signs a colleague is considering suicide is a key element in its prevention, observers say.
It is an issue of growing concern. There was a 28 percent increase in the number of suicides committed in the workplace last year—251—compared with the prior year, according to a census by the U.S. Department of Labor released in August.
And that number does not include the much greater number who kill themselves elsewhere, experts say.
Employers are expressing increasing worry about employee suicide, say employee assistance plan providers. There have been a greater number of calls recently from employers about how to handle potential suicides, said Dr. Doug Nemecek, Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based senior medical director for Cigna Corp.ís Health Solutions organization, which includes its behavioral health and EAP business. In some cases, employees are informing managers about co-workers who have expressed suicidal thoughts on their Facebook pages, he said. But creating a corporate culture where workers feel comfortable seeking help from their company's EAP or other resources can help, experts say.
Those who commit suicide at work may have felt significant stress from their increased workload as well as worries about job security, observers say. The general economic environment can cause problems as well. "They're financially strained," said Richard Chaifetz, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based ComPsych Corp., an EAP provider. "A lot of people are having relationship problems, which tend to get exacerbated" in a financial crisis. People also are concerned about their retirement, as they see their 401(k) assets drop, among other factors, he said.
The fact that a suicide occurs at work may or may not be significant, observers say. "In many cases, if you're choosing to do it here, you're choosing to send a message to your co-workers and your employers," Chaifetz said. Or, "it could be they just don't want to do it at home," where a family member would find them, said Bob VandePol, president of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Crisis Care Network Inc., which provides critical incident response services for workplaces.
Having a corporate culture that encourages employees to seek help is crucial, observers say. "We create a culture where people feel very cared for, respected, communicated with," said Zoucha of Assurity Life. Rich Paul, vice president of health and performance solutions at Norfolk, Virginia-based ValueOptions Inc., an EAP provider, said employers should implement a suicide prevention program. But, it "has to come from the top down in terms of reinforcing a supportive work environment, communicating and reinforcing the resources that are available to people who are feeling overwhelmed, or feeling that level of distress," he said. "One of the most tragic things about suicide is more often than not" those who commit it have "not sought any type of counseling support before," Paul said. "We should encourage employees to take advantage of the resources available to address stress before it escalates to this tragic level." (Workforce Week, 9/6/2009)
