Ill this fall? Don't be a hero

Canadian workplaces have been doused in hand sanitizer, littered with urgent hand-washing notices and peppered with colleagues talking swine flu around the water cooler. But if there's one resounding message to sniffling employees, it's this: Don't be a hero.

Coming into the office with the chills or even a persistent sneeze has become an offensive workplace faux pas as lines for the H1N1 vaccine snake through public buildings and hysteria about the virus hits fever pitch.

“I think it's being viewed as passing irresponsible," says Rod Phillips, president of Shepell.fgi, consultants on health and productivity in the workplace.

The Globe on H1N1 In depth: A closer look at how the virus works H1N1 v. seasonal flu: How to tell the difference Discussion: Swine flu myth bustersAcross the country: Find a clinic near you Q&A: Our public health reporter answers your questions Resources: Reliable information from across the Web Full coverage: News, video and analyisis from the Globe's team “People are very conscious of what their co-workers think and … no one wants to be sick with H1N1. It used to be people cough and say ‘excuse me.' Now they cough and say ‘I don't have H1N1.'"

Most employers are becoming more flexible on sick policies, asking fewer questions when an employee calls in sick, and are sending ill workers home, says Claude Balthazard, director of HR excellence at the Human Resource Professionals Association.

Bosses are also asking sick employees for a quick phone or e-mail check-in before they return, he says.

Despite this, some worker bees may continue to schlep into work even with a feverish temperature.

“In some organizations it's interpreted as loyalty if you show up even when you're sick," he says. “But you'll notice that this time around, the climate is that that's not particularly well seen."

Andrea S., who declined to give her last name, says she scoffed at a few employees in her office when they recently arrived there sick.

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