Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here. It’s anonymous!
Dear Good Job,
I’m a low-level manager who just got assigned an unhappy team. I’m job searching but need to keep things functional while I search. For the team, a bit of the work is laptop stuff that can happen in the office or can be done from home but most of it is in-person tasks at client locations. Two people on my team, “Melanie” and “Dylan” are parents of daycare-age kids.
They’re nearly always sick, often with two separate things since their kids go to different daycares. We only accrue 10 days of sick time so they save it for emergencies. My other staff are older parents or younger without kids and all of them are tired of always catching daycare illnesses. They try to get out of working with Melanie or Dylan when they’re sick because it involves riding in a car together and being in close environments. They also seem to be icing them out socially because of this.
Company policy is to send them out in teams of three since it’s the most efficient and safest way to do the tasks. My team has six people, so even if I pair up Melanie and Dylan there’s always one unwilling person on their team. I occasionally go out on sites too, and try to split them fairly when that happens. But most of the time, at least one person is very unhappy with the team assignments and complains audibly about it in front of Melanie or Dylan. How do I handle this? The illness situation isn’t fair but I can’t make the sick employees work from home, or force them to take sick leave. I also don’t have the capital to push for better benefits. The team is very skilled and hitting targets, but totally miserable. I suspect I’m not the only one looking for a new job but our field isn’t hiring much right now. What can I do here, and what’s actually fair?
—Yes, I Also Have the Flu
Dear Flu,
Gesundheit! Your situation is appalling, but much too common. Some states mandate paid sick leave, but the United States is one of the only high-income countries that doesn’t have a nationwide program to protect sick workers. It’s perverse. Endless studies show that it does not cost companies much, and often saves them money, to offer sick leave. And what sick time most workers get is still dangerously stingy. In my fantasy workplace, any employee forced to come to work sick would be quarantined in the boss’s office.
You say you don’t have the capital to push for better benefits, but people tend to underestimate their own power to effect change. It’s within your responsibilities as a manager to escalate this problem. You could tell your own manager you are concerned that your company could have a “retention problem” because people come to work sick. (“Retention problem” means that your best employees will quit.) Say you’re worried you could lose clients. It can’t be good for business to bring your colleagues’ infectious diseases to their offices. Your team might interact with people who are on chemo, are caretakers for frail loved ones, or have medical conditions that make germs extra dangerous. If your boss doesn’t seem to care, try talking to other managers at your level to see if you can build solidarity. Ask human resources if there’s a way to petition for expanded benefits. Some workplaces allow people to donate their own sick leave to co-workers who need more days, which isn’t a systemic fix but could get Melanie or Dylan through the worst of their daycare germs era.
In the meantime, meet with each person on your team individually and acknowledge the problem. A big part of managing is listening, plus giving them a space to vent might reduce their audible complaints to the group. Ask them for ideas about how to shift some on-site work to video calls or give more of the work-from-home responsibilities to whoever is sick that week. For the staffers with older kids, ask how they managed when their kids were sick all the time—maybe they’ll have some good advice. Tell them you are trying to get them more sick leave so they know you’re using your position of relative power to advocate for them. There are, of course, things you all can do to protect one another: wear masks, drive separately to each location, wash hands meticulously, use sanitizing gel, skip handshakes, and keep up-to-date with your and your kids’ vaccinations.
—Laura
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I’m a nurse, and a married mom of two elementary school-age children. During the pandemic, I realized that my hospital nursing job was never going to get better. After a long series of conversations with my husband, we decided I would try travel nursing for two years. We’re both very independent and also blessed with live-in family as childcare help, so we thought it was worth a shot.
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