Flu forcing tough choices for business owners/managers

The balance is not easy and finances play a huge role when a business decides how to take up the slack for sick days.

"It's tough, we're a growing store we just opened in August" Angie Ramsey told KRMG news. Angie manages the Green Country Market in Jenks, she told us dealing with sick time isn't easy "we're kind of trying to go up and up and up so as we have personnel problems it gets tighter and tighter to cover."

Even so, Angie says as a manager you have to see the big picture “we tend to be pretty strict” she began. “There are several people who I’ve sent home in the past couple of days just because the rest of us don’t want to get it.”

Taking up the slack in a small to medium business falls to those in management and that’s no different at the market. “Since we are kind of a small growing company we just use the people on salary so myself and my managers cover it” Angie told me.

Listen to the the entire interview with Angie here.

While that works, Angie admits it can have drawbacks “it’s not good for my staff morale for sure” she laughed as she said. Angie says in reality her staff steps in for each other without complaint and that’s a good thing because there have been a lot of days to cover.

Angie couldn't put a dollar figure on what the flu has cost the market but she keeps track of the days “I would say probably 12-15 something like that and that’s with a staff of about 25 people.”

Not only does Angie want sick workers to stay home so they don’t get others sick, it’s also better for the store “it’s a bad image for sure” she noted.

Angie told KRMG her employees have a pretty advantage just because of where they work “with the knowledge we have and the tools we have in our store we can get them better faster.”

How are you and your workplace handling the flu? Leave your comments and suggestions in the comments section or text us at 95920.