We’ve all been there – working on a big project and feeling an unexpected illness coming on. Before you know it, feeling under the weather has turned into a full-blown illness – but you still go into work.
With the workplace shifting to become even more hectic and new technology emerging making employees feel obliged to remain online at all hours, many workers still feel anxious about taking a sick day – even when they are genuinely ill. As a result, this gives rise to presenteeism.
What is presenteeism?
Presenteeism is when employees find their work is being affected by health problems – either mental or physical. According to a recent study, 40% of employees said that their work was being affected by health problems, and it’s on the rise.
Whether people are suffering due to their mental or physical health, it’s clear that presenteeism is having a negative impact on not only workers’ wellbeing, but also businesses. A seemingly obvious (but sometimes overlooked) point is to be made – if we are not at our best, then we are far less productive.
Therefore, wellness initiatives can actually make very good business sense.
Why do we feel anxious to call in sick?
Experts blame a shifting work culture for creating a stigma around taking time off. Studies show that mistrust and the fear of judgment from bosses force an increasing number of employees to come to work when sick, even if it isn’t a productive use of time. Some employees feel that simply showing up (even if they are not performing anywhere near optimum), is better than taking time off to rest.
When it comes to mental health issues, the fear of taking a sick day is amplified. According to studies, nearly 40% of employees don’t tell their managers the real reason for their absence. The study also found that employees were much more likely to lie to their boss about the reason for staying home if the cause was related to mental health. It was found that only 39% would tell the truth, compared to 77% when it came to physical health.
However, with only 42% of senior managers polled by AXA PPP agreeing that the flu was a serious enough reason for absence, and only 40% saying the same for back pain or elective surgery, it’s no wonder people are still reluctant to take sick days. When it comes to mental health, if many bosses think elective surgery is not a valid reason for a sick day, one can only imagine what they would think about taking a day off for mental health reasons.
Has the pandemic caused a change in our sick days?
With a rise in remote working, infecting colleagues is no longer a concern for many colleagues as 46.6% of workers are now based from home.
According to a recent study by instantprint, a fifth (21%) of workers even admitted that since the start of the pandemic they’ve been calling in sick less and are only doing so for a serious illness such as COVID.
With many workers only having to commute to their sofa, it’s far easier to stay at home and answer emails whilst nursing yourself back to health. This combined with the fact that workers feel obliged to remain online due to modern technology is the perfect recipe for presenteeism.
Whilst you may be tempted to work through your illness (especially when working from home!), it is important that employers and employees work together to break the stigma of sick days.
By collaboratively choosing to take time off when needed and introducing wellbeing and health benefits for employees, companies can begin to break the stigma attached to taking sick days. However, it all starts at the top.
