Written by: TFVstaff • December 22, 2019• Health & Wellness

Five Pro Tips for Protecting Your Immune System at the Office This Flu Season

The workplace can represent different things for different people: a means to provide for the family, an opportunity to be part of a team and work toward a common goal, a way to give back to the community and the list goes on. But one common thread between office buildings, geographical areas, teams and industries is that we’re all looking to find ways to avoid getting sick at work during flu season.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), flu season starts to pick up steam in October and peaks between December and February. While the timing and duration of flu season varies from one year to the next and even from strain to strain, occurrences sometimes linger all the way until May.

Employees miss about 17 million workdays each year due to the flu. The 2017-2018 season included the highest rate of flu activity since 2009, resulting in an estimated 48.8 million people getting sick with influenza, 22.7 million people going to a health care provider, 959,000 hospitalizations and 79,400 deaths. These staggering numbers might make you want to crawl into a cave and hibernate, but unfortunately, that isn’t always conducive to maintaining a career.

As adults who spend most of their waking hours working in an office during the week, there is a high probability of exposure to the flu via coworkers. And in order to know how to prevent contracting the flu, we must first understand how influenza is spread. The Influenza Specialist Group (ISG) warns that early on in infection, even before symptoms become evident, a contagious person can begin shedding the virus and infecting the people around them. It has been found that influenza viruses can survive for up to an hour in the air in enclosed environments, more than eight hours on hard surfaces such as stainless steel and plastic, and up to five minutes on hands after transfer from other surfaces. With this in mind, here are some tips for preventing flu infection this and every season:

Less hand shaking, more fist bumping – Although a good firm handshake is a professional courtesy in the workplace, fist bumps are trending. The perk: keeping germs off of your palms! If you must shake a hand, wash your hands after. It is not recommended or realistic to go running to the bathroom after every interaction, but subtly making your way to the lavatory or break-room sink is a good idea whenever possible.
Get your hands on an antibacterial Hand Sanitiser – Keep antibacterial hand sanitizers at your desk and use them whenever you touch communal office equipment, shake a hand or somebody hands you something. Washing your hands is always best, but hand sanitizer is a good backup to kill bacteria and viruses. Perhaps companies should look at providing some hand sanitiser to their employees throughout the flu season. They could get a supply of hand sanitiser from companies like phs Direct. Businesses can benefit from using this company as phs Direct are a leading supplier of bulk hand santiser supplies across the UK to help combat the spread of viruses and bacteria in your workplace. This should help more employees to keep their hands clean, ensuring that they have no germs to spread around the office. Hopefully, this should lower the number of flu cases in your office. Additionally, it might also be a good idea to buy each employee their own set of office supplies. This means that there will be no cross-contamination which therefore reduces the likelihood of employees spreading the virus.
Keep good space between yourself and others – Unless you have a large bubble you can wear to work, try to keep out of the airways of others. Don’t talk too close with others or stand within “shooting range” of an unexpected sneeze or cough.
Boost your immune system – It is important to keep your immune system as strong and healthy as possible, especially when we are more vulnerable to disease and viruses in shared spaces like the office. Plenty of sleep, proper nutrition, drinking lots of water, regular exercise and minimizing stress are all necessary for keeping your immune system at its best.

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