Epidemics & Vaccinations Toolkit
Help Employees Stay Home When Sick
When sick employees stay home, it helps you as the employer, your workplace, and your community by helping prevent the spread of germs and viruses.
An important way to reduce the spread of flu and other illnesses is to keep sick people away from those who are not sick. Businesses should communicate their sick leave policies and practices to employees every year before flu season begins.
- Advise all employees to stay home if they are sick until at least 24 hours after their fever is gone without the use of fever-reducing medicines, or after symptoms have improved (at least four to five days after symptoms started).
- Prepare for employees to stay home from work and plan ways for essential business functions to continue. Employees may stay home because they are sick, need to care for sick household members, or because schools have been dismissed and they need to care for their children. If able, cross-train staff to perform essential functions so that the business can continue operating.
- Prepare and advise employees on policies concerning caring for sick household members or children if applicable. Flexible leave policies and alternate work schedules can help prevent the spread of illness at your workplace, allow employees to continue to work or function while limiting contact with others, help maintain continuity of operations, and help people manage their health and their family’s needs.
- Have a written sick leave policy. Employers should consider creating a written sick leave policy to set expectations for the workplace and to communicate expectation to their employees.
- Paid Sick Leave Laws by State: Some states require employers provide paid sick leave. Know the regulations in your area.
- Implementing a Paid Sick Leave Policy: The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries provides templates for paid sick leave policies, optional sick leave policies, notification forms, and more to help your business get started. Although these resources are specifically for Washington, they can be used as a road map for organizations in other states. Please familiarize yourself with your state sick leave laws, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who needs to stay home after being close to someone with COVID-19?
If someone has, or thinks they have been, exposed to COVID-19, then they can follow CDC recommendations around quarantining and isolating to keep themselves and others safe. This is important for keeping other employees healthy so they can work.
Quarantine is for people who are not showing symptoms of COVID-19 after being exposed. While someone might not be showing symptoms, they could have COVID-19 or begin to show symptoms soon. Quarantine helps prevent COVID-19 from potentially spreading to others by keeping the exposed person away from others.
Isolation is used to separate people who have COVID-19 symptoms from those without COVID-19.
Actions to take vary based on the type of recommendation, and it’s important for you and your employees to understand the differences!
For quarantining, this could be an employee who is unvaccinated staying home from work because a person they live with has COVID-19, even if the employee does not show symptoms of COVID-19. If the employee is vaccinated in that situation, the CDC does not recommend quarantine, although it recommends they get tested.
For isolation, this could be an employee staying home from work because they have symptoms OR test positive for COVID-19. The CDC recommends people who have symptoms get tested. The CDC currently recommends someone isolate for at least five days if they have symptoms or test positive for COVID-19.
Please keep in mind the CDC may change these recommendations based upon research around COVID-19, its variants, and how vaccines slow or stop the spread.
Flyers
Employers can also print and hang up signs around the workplace reminding folks of what they can do if they feel sick or get COVID-19
- When You Are Sick (PDF)
CDC recommendations on what people should do when they are sick. - Don’t Delay: Test Soon and Treat Early (PDF)
A CDC flyer to help remind employees that if they get COVID-19 they should test and get treated as soon as possible.
Do employees with sick household members need to stay home?
No, as long as the sick person in their household does not have COVID-19. However, it is especially important that the employee monitor themself for signs and symptoms of illness so they can go home or stay home if they begin to show symptoms of any contagious illness (such as the flu).
Employees with school-age children may need to stay home to care for their children. Employers should review leave policies for the flexibility to allow employees to stay home if they need to care for their children or other household members.
Why should businesses have flexible leave policies or alternate work schedules?
An important way to reduce the spread of illness is to keep sick people away from those who are not sick. Therefore, any worker who has symptoms should stay home and not come to work. Flexible leave policies and alternate work schedules will help prevent the spread of illness at your workplace, allow employees to continue to work or function while limiting contact with others, help maintain continuity of operations, and help people manage their health and their family’s needs.
Signs, Posters, & Handouts
By hanging or providing these materials in breakrooms or other common areas, employers can remind employees of the importance of staying home if they’re sick.
More flyers and posters can be found here.
The Connect to Wellness Toolkits are based on information aggregated by the Health Promotion Research Center (HPRC), a CDC Prevention Research Center, at the University of Washington School of Public Health.