People who work long hours less likely to take time off, but ‘presenteeism’ doesn’t work: Study

People who work long hours are less likely to take time off, but working while under the weather is not worth the effort, an academic says.

Dr Christopher Magee, of University of Wollongong School of Psychology and Centre for Health Initiatives, says “presenteeism” or showing up to work while sick simply doesn’t work.

His advice? Take the day off.

“The general work on presenteeism is that workers should stay at home,” Magee says.

“The research shows that people who turn up to work sick are less productive than if they took a day off.”

Magee says the study almost 3000 employees showed three things:

• People with stressful jobs take more sick leave
• People who have to travel more to get to work take more sick leave
• People who work more took less sick leave.

The study was based on the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia surveys of 2005 through to 2008, and found that those who work between 35 and 39 hours per week are much more likely to take more than 13 days off sick than those who work 50-plus hours.

According to Magee, the average amount of time taken off sick was three days a year, although employees might have “faked good” and overplayed their good health.

Deterrents for taking time off sick include the fear of getting punished, the idea the work won’t get done in the employee’s absence and the fear of upsetting colleagues, particularly for those on fixed-term contracts.

On the problem of travellers getting sick, Magee says rather than hiring people who live close to work, governments need to think about transport and infrastructure.

“It might not be that they’re chucking sickies; it might be the thought of sitting in traffic while sick,” Magee says.

He adds that those who don’t turn up to sick are the ones who benefit the company.