Doctors strongly advise staying at home if you are ill. Many Germans still go to work, as a study shows. In doing so, they endanger themselves and others. But even with a corona infection, some people do not comply with the isolation requirement.
The majority of all working people go to work despite being ill. Even every tenth corona sufferer shows up in the office or at work with a mild course and despite positive tests. Another 20 percent come to work with contagious infections. Only 28 percent of Germans consistently stay at home when they are ill and do not work. This is the result of a representative study “Work 2022” by the Pronova BKK company health insurance company, which is available to the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe”.
1,200 employees were surveyed in September. Employees most frequently go to work despite back pain (49 percent), 38 percent despite allergies. A third of the employees with psychosomatic or psychological complaints appear at work.
Working despite illness is questionable from the point of view of medical professionals, especially in the case of contagious infections. “Anyone who does not recover in peace runs the risk of viral diseases also attacking the heart or other organs or of symptoms suppressed by medication becoming worse,” says Gerd Herold, a consultant doctor at Pronova BKK. “In addition, employees can be infected.” For example, being in the office despite a positive corona test is “an unreasonable risk”.
According to a survey, nine percent of those who are sick appear in the company with corona diseases. 17 percent work from home, another 17 stay at home for a few days until the worst symptoms are over. 8 percent then decide what is going on at work. 33 percent of those surveyed stay at home with a mild course of corona until they are healthy again. 16 percent of those surveyed had not yet contracted the corona virus.
The experiences with infection protection during the corona pandemic have not changed the habit of appearing sick at work, says Herold: “Some are worried about being considered lazy or expecting their colleagues to substitute”.