Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2011; the point that workers are afraid of being fired if they call in sick reflects the Spanish job market during the 2011 crisis.
We all hear those statistics on television telling us that absenteeism costs the government hundreds of millions of euros. In the same way, absenteeism hurts a business, because, quite obviously, the position is left unfilled or is covered by someone who isn’t yet ready to do the job.
These days, workers are afraid of being fired if they get sick and miss work, so companies experience something much worse than absenteeism, which we call “presenteeism”. And make no mistake: presenteeism usually ends up costing more than absenteeism.
What is presenteeism?
It’s when an employee is physically present but not productive, because their physical and/or mental condition is temporarily impaired. One example of presenteeism is an employee who has the flu and doesn’t stay home to rest.
In office work, the “presentee” usually sits at their desk counting the minutes until the end of the day. If they try to get something done, it will take them twice as long, and they probably won’t spend the time needed to check their work, so they’re very likely to make mistakes. A secretary, however hard she tries, won’t handle calls and clients the same way, because when we’re ill our energy, drive and mood are much lower.
In other jobs, the boss usually gives the presentee a different task until they recover, perhaps a less risky one, which in the end means having an employee doing a job that isn’t theirs.
On top of all this, there’s the risk of infecting the rest of the staff. Sometimes, not sending an employee home for 3 days can cost us 33 days of lost productivity, plus a poor image in jobs that involve dealing with the public.
Other forms of presenteeism
The same thing happens with some employees who have been told their contract won’t be renewed. Keeping on an employee for 15 days when you both know they won’t be staying can be agony for the employee and can have very serious consequences for the company. Increasingly, the advice is that when an employee is told their contract won’t be renewed, they should be given their proportional share of holiday so they don’t have to stay at the company during that time. Of course, there will be many exceptions here.
In short: business is business, so if an employee has flu symptoms or a serious temporary psychological problem, don’t hesitate and don’t wait for them to ask. Give them a break. It’s better to lose an employee for 3 days and have them come back with their batteries recharged than to keep them at work running on empty for 15–30 days, with the risk of infecting the rest of the staff.
Featured image: mcfarlandmo, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
