My family has been doing pretty well at keeping germs at bay this season, knock on wood. We did come across a cold-bug this past weekend, however, and I had a head cold in full swing on Monday, as well as a full appointment book for the day.
As a courtesy to those clients, I called them to let them know that yes, they could still come in for their massage if they needed it, but if they wanted to steer as far from my cold as possible and reschedule their appointments, that would be fine too. All three rescheduled. I felt kind of bad about it at first, but later in the evening, I was very, very relieved. Potentially, I just saved 3 families from catching the (fairly minor) cold that I had. But it meant so much more to me than that.
The straw that broke the camel's back in my previous career (working in assisted living), came in June 2005. I was sick, turned out it was bronchitis. I tried to call in sick, but basically was not given that choice. I HAD to go to work. With bronchitis. Working with the elderly. Within the same time frame, one of the residents got pneumonia, and I am convinced she got it due in part to my working with bronchitis. Fortunately, she got over the pneumonia, despite her poor health to begin with, but never really got well, and passed away several months later.
Well anyway... it bothered me to no end that I should HAVE to work with people with poor immune systems when I was already sick. That experience was the last one needed before I signed myself up for school to become a massage therapist (with a hoarse voice at the time!).
It was such a nice feeling to be able to let my clients choose whether I would come to work for them on Monday or not, and to know that they cared enough about my health and theirs to let me stay home and wait out the cold. To those clients: Thank You!
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