You should call in sick more often — even if you’re WFH
Role of companies
Companies generally want to keep employees’ absences due to sickness as low as possible. Presenteeism is often viewed positively if the alternative is sick leave, as employees will get some work done and their role will not need to be covered by co-workers.
But when researching this issue, I’ve also found that taking sick leave is not a decisionthat people take lightly. In one study I worked on, 60% of the participants had attended work while unwell in the previous 12 months. People reported working through a wide range of health conditions, some serious enough that managers had to intervene and send people home.
Working at home makes it harder for managers to see when employees are ill – so they are less likely to tell people to take sick leave. In order to keep sick employees from working, companies need to actively encourage employees to take time away from work.
Similarly, a recent study found that workers diagnosed with acute respiratory illness or influenza during the 2017-18 influenza season were more likely to carry on working if they could work from home than those without the option. Perhaps not surprisingly, workers who received paid leaveworked fewer days while ill.
A key aspect of research into sickness presenteeism is that often the seriousness of the illness is unknown. In many cases, employees can still work with minor illnesses such as colds and it will not harm their health in the long term. But workers and employers need to be aware of the potential health risk of working through health conditions that require rest and time to recover.
Companies who concentrate on controlling sickness absence in the short term may be encouraging sickness presenteeism in the longer term and risk prolonging an illness or making a health condition worse. Just because we can work from home when we are ill, it doesn’t always mean that we should – and that includes logging on to our laptop or checking emails from the sick bed.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyAlison Collins, Reader in Leadership and Management,Manchester Metropolitan Universityunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists.An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
