Kyle Junes uses a table saw at Charles Cabinets Co. in Roseville, which had to slow production earlier this month when four of eight employees called in sick over a stretch of days earlier this month. Photographed on January 29, 2013. ( Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)
Flu season can be bad for business -- especially small business.
With relatively few employees on their payrolls to begin with, small businesses can have trouble dealing with having just one person call in sick.
"You can't have extra manpower just sitting around waiting for someone to be sick," said Jim Schreier, owner of Charles Cabinet Co. in Roseville. "So, when someone is out, you definitely feel the pain."
Although the pace of new influenza infections in Minnesota appears to have slowed recently, Doug Schultz, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, said the flu season is far from over.
"We're still at a pretty high level of (flu) activity," Schultz said. "There's just way more flu out there this year than there was last year."
Schreier knows this first-hand. This has been the worst flu season he has seen, in terms of lost production, since he bought Charles Cabinet from his father 21 years ago.
About two weeks ago, four of his eight employees were out sick at the same time, leaving him and the remaining four to juggle both the manufacturing and customer service sides of the custom cabinet company.
Although his employees are trained in multiple aspects of the business, it's impossible to produce the same number of cabinets with half the employees, Schreier said. He added that the difference often has to be made up with overtime, which gets expensive.
The company, which usually manufactures between two and three sets of
cabinets a week, turned out just one set that week.At the Northeast Tailor Shop in Minneapolis, a single case of the flu can stop work entirely -- because there's only one employee: owner Altug Ipekci. Ipekci hasn't been sick yet this season, but pneumonia laid him up for three days over Christmas 2011.
Ipekci said he put up a sign saying the shop was closed, but he still tried to keep up with orders despite his illness.
"I don't like to sit around and baby myself," Ipekci said. And since it's just him at the shop, he doesn't have to worry about infecting anyone else when he's sick.
Schreier, on the other hand, tells his employees to stay home if they feel ill to avoid infecting coworkers, despite being understaffed.
For restaurant owners, the risks are maximized.
John Tinucci, co-owner of the two Colossal Cafes in Minneapolis and St. Paul, said he makes it clear to his roughly 25 employees that he doesn't want them at work if they even have symptoms.
"You get some of these young kids -- they need the money," Tinucci said. "They don't always understand that it's a problem for the other employees or (the customers)."
Although a couple of his employees have been out sick at one time or another this flu
Ryan Lovelace cleans up a cabinet at Charles Cabinets Co. in Roseville, which had to slow production when four people called in sick over a stretch of days earlier this month, photographed on January 29, 2013. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)
season, Tinucci said he hasn't seen the kind staffing problems Schreier has.Nim Traeger, vice president of risk control at Travelers Cos., said Schreier and Tinucci are doing the right thing by encouraging their employees to stay home if they get sick. Traeger emphasized that the best way to beat the flu is to prevent it from spreading in the first place.
Obvious steps, such as providing employees with hand sanitizer and encouraging them to receive flu shots, should be combined with additional measures like frequently wiping down common surfaces with disinfectant, she said.
Tinucci said compulsory cleaning in the restaurant business becomes second-nature.
"You clean as you work," Tinucci said. "That's kind of a restaurant mantra."
Schreier targets door handles, railings and telephone handsets, scrubbing them regularly between weekly top-to-bottom cleanings of his shop. He also places bottles of hand sanitizer throughout the building.
Despite his efforts, Schreier said the severity of this flu season took him by surprise.
"We haven't had anything like this before," he said. "I've tried to think about it, but I don't know what I could've done different."
Nick Woltman can be reached at 651-228-5189. Follow him on Twitter: @nickwoltman.
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