Absence Policies May Hamper Recovery

摘要

Sickness absence policies linked to disciplinary measures, and an emphasis on return to work without promoting job retention may be detrimental to the long term work-health of employees with chronic illnesses, concludes research conducted by Loughborough University and Goldsmiths College, London. Four large UK public and private sector employers, with a combined workforce of more than 32,000 employees, took part in a study. Employees were asked to complete surveys covering demographics, occupation, chronic illness and self-reported absence, with the questionnaires returned anonymously to the research team. In addition, incidence of presenteeism was measured by asking participants to estimate the number of times they had attended work despite feeling unwell over the previous year (divided into spells lasting less than five days and spells of five days or more). More than 5,200 surveys were returned completed (21% response).