Being sick is a major detriment to an individual. Obviously, you are not going to feel one hundred percent, and you will wish you were healthy. However, being sick can not only be a threat to your health and wellbeing, but also to your business.
Being sick could take valuable time away from your business, time that you won’t be able to get back. Productivity could dip, and you might be absent from your role as a manager for an extended period of time.
It doesn’t even take something serious like a cancer misdiagnosis or heart attack to affect your ability to manage, as any illness that affects your ability to work can be detrimental. So how exactly can one get through an illness while still effectively managing a business?
Here are some tips on how to ensure your business does not miss a beat while you’re sick.
Take Time Off
While at first this suggestion may seem counter-intuitive, it actually is the quickest way to get over your sickness. Taking some time off of work will allow you to rest up and recover from your sickness much quicker.
If you attempt to work through your sickness, then the results may be less than satisfactory. Working through a sickness can be bad for your health, causing the symptoms of the illness to linger for longer or even get worse. You may be more prone to mistakes or bad judgement calls simply because you are not one hundred percent. You will likely be fatigued and dealing with a variety of symptoms, something that could cause you to be much more error-prone than usual. In addition, your symptoms may cause you to be much more irritable than usual, something that could cause friction between you and your employees or even lower your employees’ morale.
Stepping away may be very difficult for some people, but it’s the best option until you’re fully healthy
Appoint Trustworthy Employees
This solution is more of a preventive method rather than a reactive one, but it is still effective. Having a trustworthy second-in-command and other trustworthy assistants will make stepping away for a little while much easier. You can trust that these employees know exactly how you handle situations and will have the proper judgement to make correct decisions.
Managerial decisions are important, so these people need to be trusted by you and be well experienced with your business. However, if you find the right people, they will be able to effectively manage your business in your absence. This will allow you to take time off without really hurting the overall productivity of your business.
Train Your Staff
One thing that can help the management of your business while you’re sick is to adequately train your staff. A well trained staff will be aware of their responsibilities and should be able to complete them even with the absence of their primary manager.
A good training program will prepare them for situations like this. However, a poorly trained staff could struggle juggling their responsibilities. The added pressure of having to do more may cause an increase in mistakes and oversights. That’s why it is extremely important that your staff is well trained and has some semblance of autonomy. This will make stepping away and managing your business while you’re sick much easier.
Talk With Clients/Customers
Another extremely important aspect of stepping away and managing your business while you’re sick is communicating with your clients and customers. Let them know the situation and how it may affect certain aspects of business. Refer them to your trusted employees if they have any questions or concerns.
Everyone has experienced being sick before, and everyone knows how hard it is to be productive while you aren’t feeling yourself. Your clients and customers will understand. If the issue is extremely time sensitive and drastically requires your attention then you might have to come back to work and deal with it yourself. However, other than a few extremely rare situations, your clients and customers should be okay with dealing with your other employees or just simply waiting for a few days.
Just be certain that your situation is adequately communicated and is completely transparent when it comes to clients and customers.