By Beth Bonfiglio
With equality and gender diversity being a hot topic among women in business, is it any wonder why women are the top sickie takers and considered less employable?
Imagine this
You’re sitting at your desk, your eye on the corporate ladder and dreams of what climbing it will bring for you, fulfilment, more income, a new car or overseas holidays. Then your phone rings. It’s your child’s day-care – little Charlie has been green snot smearing on the other kids and needs to be quarantined.
Wonderful.
That superbug that we managed to avoid seems to have us now. You take a few days off work, get him back to health, plan to return Monday but on Sunday evening you’re starting to get hot sweats, a headache and fear the lurgy has you now too.
Now it’s another few days off so that you don’t spread it to your team, business contacts and clients. Yes, it’s normal, and a doctor will tell you so. But it’s normal because it happens so frequently. Is it avoidable? Oh, you bet your Medicare threshold it is!
If you’re a full-time mum considering returning to the workforce, you may not consider health as a vital factor to prepare for long before you return.
A strong immune system among the family could just be the difference between you being a good employee and an awesome employee.
Nobody likes to have sick children, but just think how impressed your new boss is going to be if your child picks up every illness going around the day-care, and you then pick up the lurgy whilst at home caring for your sick child.
Time off work, even though it’s legally allowed, does cost your employer time and money to cover for your absence; this will impact your future employability and progression up the corporate ladder.
Here’s something to consider: your immune system was passed onto your child in utero. If you were placed on antibiotics pre or post pregnancy or your child has been on antibiotics, you may want to consider a gut healing regime to get everyone’s biome full of beneficial flora to fight off the bad bugs.
Signs of a compromised immune system
- Eczema or dry patches of skin
- Poor sleep and irritability
- Frequent illnesses and antibiotics, appears always congested, perhaps with watery eyes
- Suspected food intolerances or allergies
- Missing key nutrients in diet (common with a picky eater)
- Digestive problems, constipation, diarrhoea, loss of appetite and nausea
- Delayed growth and development
Do you have autoimmune diseases plaguing the family or already have a highly stressful life without adding more responsibility to the mix? Stress is a psychological pain that is triggered by the health of your endocrine system and the ability to excrete hormones and cortisol to combat and effectively deal with daily stresses.
If your immune system is compromised from the outset, you’ll find stress and mental clarity much more difficult to overcome.
