Every year, winter colds and flu infect thousands in San Francisco Bay Area workplaces, leading to lost workdays and depleted staffs. Knowing this, employers try to plan for the onset of cold and flu season and soften its effects. Bulgatz, although she got sick, was lucky in one respect. She was able to do some work from her home office. Many of Schwab's 25,000 employees have the option to telecommute, Bulgatz said, and all of the discount brokerage's workers were eligible for company-sponsored flu shots.
Illness can exact quite a toll on the workplace.
Hirsch said the current national and local shortage of nurses is made worse when a significant number of UCSF's 1,600 nurses get sick and take time off. There's no sense in the doctor community that we have had a major outbreak of flu. It's really knocking people back,'' said Sarris, a bit ruefully. This year, Sarris joined about 80 of his colleagues in LucasArts' San Rafael office in getting a flu shot. It didn't do much good, though.