Health scares rather than economic crises unite workers. But we should rekindle this spirit in good times as well as bad

With swine flu cases rising, the workplace and the community are pulling together more. Crises of this sort bring out the best in employees as colleagues support one another and work more flexibly to cover for people.

Earlier this year, the opposite was true. The recession, job losses and work insecurity led to workers behaving in a more self-protective mode. Employees were coming in earlier and staying later to show their face more, and attending an increasing number of meetings to be perceived as being active and committed. There was less team-building as staff concentrated on their own duties and job security rather than for the collective good, which is understandable.

When we hear the word pandemic, the human psyche changes and the atmosphere at work alters. Employees become less self-centred, focusing on family, friends and colleagues as they try to help and support them. If we could only bottle this spirit during normal or bright economic times, it could make work a more effective, happier place.

In tough times we also get to know our colleagues more as human beings rather than in their organisational roles. We hear about their difficulties when someone is ill at home, or they need to look after children when the wife or husband is sick, or they have to help their elderly parents. We don't see them as competitors for the next job up the corporate ladder, but as people who are just as vulnerable as us, with the same strengths and weaknesses as ourselves.

As the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, put it: "When you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have: this one's energy, that one's modesty, another's generosity, and so on. Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we're practically showered with them."

Economic crises don't seem to have the same effect as health-related ones, or as world wars, which make us stop and think about the human condition—what is important in life and our place in it. We seem to get so caught up in our job and the status of our work role in society that we lose all perspective on the other aspects of our lives that are important, not only our families but also how we treat our colleagues. 

The poet, Philip Larkin, wrote in a letter to a friend in 1976: "One wakes up wanting to cut one's throat: one goes to work, and in 15 minutes one wants to cut someone else's-complete cure."

It is not surprising that we have seen workplace stress as one of the leading causes of sickness absence in both the private and public sector over the past decade. This has come about not only because of a long-hours culture, overload and global competition but also because of how people are treated at work.

If we had bosses who regularly managed people by praise and reward instead of fault-finding, if colleagues were less competitive to one another and worked more as a team, if we didn't have a consistently macho, long-hours culture that undermined an individual's work-life balance, then we might make some progress in our quality of working life. 

The swine flu pandemic at least makes us stop and reflect on some of these important things in life. As Woody Allen once reflected: "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it by not dying."