I don’t know about your office environment but, in my workplace, January typically brings viruses galore!

It’s not unusual in an academic environment, as you have thousands of students and employees sharing the air. We also share door handles, elevator buttons … and viruses. In our case, it was a particularly nasty cold that hit last month. It seemed that, even as one person turned a corner and was on the mend, yet another person started sniffling, sneezing or coughing.

This brings to mind the days when our kidlets were in elementary school. People would return to school in the new year sharing tales of their winter holiday fun … and also sharing cold and flu viruses. I’m guessing it’s predictable that investors in products that relieve cold and flu symptoms typically anticipate great returns for this particular fiscal quarter!

Then, there’s the flu, which can have serious ramifications for the young, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Readers of a certain age will have heard of the Spanish Influenza of a hundred years ago. It impacted roughly a third of the global population of 1918, and almost 50 million people died as a result. From what I understand, one of my great-grandfathers was among that count.

We know anecdotally that this has already been a tough winter for people hit by the flu. Scientific American has written about capacity to preempt an outbreak as significant as that of 1918. That publication notes that, “As global travel and trade continue to increase, so too will the need for accurate and rapid threat detection.”

 On a far lighter note, I was out of commission for much of last week due to an injury. Thank goodness for the ability to prepare and schedule posts to publish in advance! I’m now back at almost full speed but, looking back on the last few weeks, I’m wondering how you respond to sickness. Do you stay home and rest, or …

Do you go to work when you’re sick?

Please take a couple of minutes to complete the poll below. As always, I look forward to hearing what you have to say and will publish the results on Tuesday.

Please take a couple of minutes to complete the poll below, and I’ll publish results next Tuesday. Select whichever responses apply, and remember to CLICK on the “VOTE” ICON after responding to each question.