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Home > Second hand smoke....or the side effects to a rotten economy....

Second hand smoke....or the side effects to a rotten economy....

March 23rd, 2011 at 02:34 am

Our management team met today. One of the discussions was about bringing in a mental health and family counselor to teach our mid level managers how to help our staff. I am not sure if it is coincidence or if this is a trend, but our staff have had more family deaths and serious illnesses in the past 6 months than we have seen in years - and it is taking its toll. We have about 200 staff members and weve had about 10% with a death in the family...in just the past month cancer, a heart attack and H1n1 claimed three family members lives...their ages... 68, 41 and 17...).. and another 7% with serious illness. (Not including the number of staff who have been sick, gotten injured, or suffering serious financial issues.)

Additionally, our staff work with our members who are also experiencing some of the toughest hardships in their lives...

Is anyone else noticing similar trends???

Its very sad. I love that my job understands how much impact this is having on staff, and that we are taking steps (proactively) to help!

I spent $8 on a salad at lunch today... CLEARLY I am not sticking to the lunch challenge too well, but it was a healthy salad. If that counts. lol



5 Responses to “Second hand smoke....or the side effects to a rotten economy....”

  1. dmontngrey Says:
    1300902483

    Can I please have 2010 back? This entire year has been hellish as far as I'm concerned! As far as work goes, there does seem to be quite an increase in employee injuries/sickness/personal problems. Quite sad really.

  2. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1301184364

    Wow! That is so sad. Frown Did the person who died of H1N1 have any other mitigating factors?

  3. Jerry Says:
    1301259175

    Wow, that is really sad, and it definitely does lead to effects that ripple through a group, there is no question about it. Was it the young person who died from the flu? It just goes to show that there is no insurance against disease in some cases... and how fleeting health and life can be in some cases.
    Jerry

  4. baselle Says:
    1301285966

    Wow, that is a troubling statistic! We've had some bad patches last year - one of my employees had a health scare on top of her mother dying, and my other has caregiving issues with his father who lives 3000 miles away. Nothing yet for 2011. Fingers crossed and knock on wood that the quiet continues.


    Do you have some sort of employee assistance program where people can grieve, and can one employee donate sick leave to another? Small items but they offer a little bit of control both to the people who are suffering and a way for the luckier employees to help.

  5. Thrifty Ray Says:
    1303872166

    H1n1 claimed the 17 year old. He was in sports at school and just a good kid. There was no other medical issues before...he got sick, had trouble breathing and organs started shutting down. His family is in shock from this loss. So sad.

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