Dubai: Workplace absenteeism due to sickness is an important area covered by company polices and programmes across the globe. A common policy in any workplace is the sick leave policy, where every employee upon being sick is allowed to be off work for a set of days in a calendar year.
Being in the field of occupational health for the last few years, I have noticed that employees deal with the sick day’s allocation as a benefit rather than an emergency cushion! Especially when approaching the end of the year — there is a sudden surge in the number of sick day leaves. This is a behaviour that impacts the morale and profitability of any workplace.
An employee might say: “The policy allows me to take sick leave, then why not?” The argument is valid but there is an ethical responsibility towards ourselves and the employer. To use is one thing, but to abuse is another thing. Here are some quick tips for less sick days in a year:
Take the flu vaccine:
One common illness that leads to many sick days in a year. The vaccine helps to prevent or reduce the severity of the attack.
Be more active:
Being more active boosts immunity and replaces unhealthy cells with healthy ones.
Ensure seven to eight hours sleep a day to keep body systems in shape.
Another challenge I have observed is when the employee is only physically present at work, a phenomenon labelled as presenteeism in the mid-90s. This is when employees show up for work even if they are too sick, stressed or distracted to be productive. Difficulty in quantifying these phenomena makes it a burden on many workplaces.
Here are some insights in dealing with presenteeism:
Counter any hint of criticism from colleagues so that employees do not feel coerced into attending work when they are not well.
Well-being is increasingly being incorporated into HR strategies to ward off effects of sickness and stress allowing people to focus on their work.
Offer flexible working arrangements or working from home so that employees have the best working environment. Studies show it actually raises output levels from employees while at the same time reducing stress.
Such dilemmas bring up an important question: How to make the employee come to work full of enthusiasm and dedication, bringing down both absenteeism and presenteeism? I shall discuss it next month, stay tuned.
- The author is director, medical & occupational health services, HR, du
