I have been dealing with the flu all week - and I have been crawling into the office and doing the best I can to work and concentrate. But I am not doing a very good job. And if you have ever had the flu, you know what I mean - your head hurts, you are coughing, you have a fever, you can't concentrate, and you generally feel lousy. But in my case, there is no one else to do my job except me.
But how productive am I really? (Not to mention dangerous to co-workers -- don't worry -- I am keeping myself away from other people). This is what workplace experts call presenteeism -- you are "present" but you are not really working or productive.
As lousy as I may feel, I am not fearing for my life, and I was not battered by my partner last night, and I am not fearful for my children, and I am not afraid to go home tonight. But imagine I was. . .what would that be like for me? How could I possibly concentrate and do a good job if I was being abused at home?
I cannot imagine. But people do it every day. And as we know from surveys we have done, 21% of full-time employees deal with this in their work lives, and 64% of them said that their work lives were impacted.
So when you think about how hard it is to walk into work distracted by a cold, or the flu, or a sick child or ill parent. . . imagine what it must be like to walk into work with domestic violence going on at home.
If you need resources or assistance for your workplace program, check out our site at http://www.caepv.org/.
No comments:
Post a Comment