Cold and flu seasons tend to come and go and this season seems to be quite intense. As a service provider we are touching people for a living and so keeping ourselves healthy and our clients safe is key. However, this is no easy feat.
In this brief blog post, we are talking about things that we can do as service providers to protect ourselves and our clients. First and foremost, I think it's important that we have a sick policy in place. Whether you work for someone or you are working for yourself it is important to have a strong boundary with illness coming into your space.
In my personal practice, I do ask that the client cancels and reschedules if they are sick. While sometimes that does mean that I bend the rule of my cancellation policy and not charge them as I do not want them coming in sick and some of my clients would rather come in sick than pay the cancellation fee. However, I don't want to get sick as I could end up passing it on to others and missing work. While yes you may miss out on some income temporarily for someone who must cancel because they are sick, it is still far less missed income than if you must take off a few days or more due to illness. I recommend considering this when determining how you will handle a sick policy yourself. Having said that, I think it goes without saying that if we are asking our clients to reschedule when they are ill then we need to do that same courtesy for them and not come in sick.
Another issue to consider is if someone does show up clearly ill will you turn them away and make them reschedule? And will there be a fee involved for that? Many professionals have gone this route when people abuse the policy and show up ill.
It is completely acceptable to send out a reminder occasionally via e-mail or perhaps in your appointment reminders mentioning the sick policy and to please reschedule if you are ill. You can also put your policy on your professional social media occasionally as well just as a friendly reminder.
Some additional tips would be to allow for some time to do some extra deep cleaning either in between clients or at the end of the day. Be sure you are clear about the type of cleaning products you are using and the effectiveness of what they are cleaning.
Lastly and very important is to make sure that we take care of ourselves as well. Be sure you're drinking a lot of water and eating good food. Take time to rest when we are off work. Be sure we are washing our hands diligently and properly - 30 seconds or more with soap and water sing the birthday song twice. As always when appropriate wear a mask and for gloves as well.
We wish you health as we navigate through these germy times. We hope that you found this a good refresher and helpful to keeping you and your clients healthy.
