How Zika Is Forcing Uncomfortable Workplace Conversations

The Zika outbreak is creating complicated situations in the workplace as bosses, employees and entrepreneurs try balancing health and safety with privacy rights. The virus, which spread across Latin America and the Caribbean last year, poses severe risks of birth defects in the offspring of pregnant women and couples who are trying to conceive. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns pregnant women not to travel any area with Zika, and advises other travelers to take measures to avoid mosquito bites and use a condom during sex. Employees may feel that in order to skip a business trip to a country affected by Zika, they'll have to reveal an early pregnancy or plans to conceive before they're ready to tell the boss. Before Zika, such conversations rarely occurred in the workplace. Georgia Beattie, 30, got trapped in just such an awkward situation last year. Beattie owns a successful wine company in Australia and had been invited to speak about entrepreneurship at a United Nations youth conference in Colombia. Though not pregnant, she declined the invitation after consulting with doctors, because she may choose to have a child in coming years. "There was part of me that thought that I was being overcautious and that I was giving up on an opportunity," said Beattie, who wants to expand her company into South America. It didn't help that others on the delegation didn't seem to consider Zika to be a legitimate health threat, according to Beattie. "The delegation w...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news