Presenteeism

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

With presentism (of presence - presence), industrial psychology and occupational medicine refer to the behavior of employees who are at work despite being ill , especially in times of high unemployment (e.g. when the economy is weak ) , or the reduction in work productivity due to reduced performance of employees who are health restrictions such as B. chronic diseases. The opposite is absenteeism , also known colloquially as "celebrating sick".

The term presenteeism was first used by Auren Uris in his article How to Build Presenteeism .

causes

According to Elke Ahlers from the Economics and Social Science Institute of the union -affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation , presenterism is not only caused by fear of a possible dismissal, but is also due to a higher level of personal responsibility on the part of employees.

consequences

Health consequences

The employees make themselves compulsory for fear of losing their job. This is undesirable because the sick employees cannot perform at their full capacity despite their physical presence, which means that productivity decreases and the risk of accidents increases. The ability to concentrate negatively influenced by physical and mental impairments leads to more mistakes. Infectious diseases like the flu can be passed on to colleagues.

Economic consequences

Many employers, but also employees, are not aware of the fact that the mere presence of the sick employee costs the company much more than curing his illness. A study by Cornell University in the United States shows that productivity losses due to sick employees in the workplace are three times higher than those due to colleagues on sick leave. According to this study, productivity loss costs US companies around $ 180 billion a year.

It is estimated that a flu-sick employee who stays at home costs the company 1200 euros per year; however, an employee who continues to come to work despite being ill costs the company as much as 2,400 euros because of the loss of performance. This value is multiplied by the contagion from colleagues.

activities

The prevention of presenteeism is not easy, since it is not enough to recommend the staff to stay at home. Usually the clinical pictures are more complex and not easy to fight, for example in asthma , depression , allergies , migraines , back pain and other chronic diseases. Therefore, employees should be more sensitive to their own health through special measures and programs, if possible as part of personal support through wellness, nutrition or fitness programs and the like.

Figures on presenterism in Germany

Statistics show that sick leave continued to decline in 2005 and is at its lowest level in ten years. The proportion of employees not on sick leave at all also increased (2005: 48.5%; 2000: 44.7%). Surveys on behalf of the AOK Scientific Institute (WIdO) show that the decline is partly due to workers' fear of the security of their jobs. According to a survey by the Scientific Institute, around a third of employees go to work against the express advice of the doctor. At the beginning of 2014, a Forsa survey of 3,000 employees provided more recent data on the topic; it is based on an order from the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit .

Sylwia Lech, the chairwoman of the works council of the Amazon logistics center in Graben near Augsburg, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung on September 28, 2015 that it was a result of the pressure at Amazon “that people drag themselves into the company sick”. That makes the employees "of course even sicker in the long term".

The 2018 absenteeism report by the AOK's Scientific Service showed that 21.1 percent of those surveyed nationwide in 2030 went to work sick against medical advice. Those who see their work as meaningful are even less likely (18.5 percent) to be affected by presenteeism than employees who do not (24.8 percent).

Figures on presenterism in Austria

At the end of 2017, the Chamber of Labor presented figures according to which around a third of employees in Austria go to work sick. The health insurance companies, on the other hand, only show the actual sick leave.

Related topics

In Germany, since 1996, in accordance with Section 4a of the Continued Payment Act , companies have been able to reduce special payments that are paid in addition to current pay for periods of incapacity for work due to illness. On this basis, several companies have made the payment of bonuses dependent on the number of sick days the employee has. In 2017 , Amazon also introduced a bonus model linked to sick days, in which bonus payments of up to ten percent of the gross wage also depend on the days of absence in the entire department.

Presentismo in Argentina is a monthly allowance for employees who have no sick days.

literature

  • G. Aronsson, K. Gustafsson, M. Dallner: Sick but yet at work. An empirical study of sickness presenteeism . J Epidemiol Community Health, 2000, 54, 502-9.
  • WN Burton, DJ Conti, CY Chen, AB Schultz, DW Edington: The role of health risk factors and disease on worker productivity . J Occup Environ Med, 1999, 41, 863-77.
  • Miriam Hägerbäumer: Causes and Consequences of Working Despite Illness. Implications of presenterism for company absenteeism and health management. eDissertation , accessed May 9, 2012
  • Auras Uris: How to Build Presenteeism . Petroleum Refiner, 1955, 34, 348-359.
  • Miriam Wagner: Limited attendance. In: managerSeminare 151, October 2010, pp. 76–80
  • Jana Schmidt, Helmut Schröder: Presentism - sick to work for fear of losing a job. In: Bernhard Badura u. a. (Ed.): Absence Report 2009. Work and Psyche: Reduce Stress - Promote Wellbeing. Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-642-01077-4 , pp. 93-100.
  • More harm than good. In: fit! , Edition 1/2014, pp. 16-17.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aronsson et al., 2000
  2. ↑ Burton et al., 1999
  3. ↑ Uris, 1955
  4. ↑ Virus alarm in the office In: faz.net , January 22, 2018.
  5. ↑ Stefan Mayr: Delivered normally. The Verdi union accuses the logistics company Amazon of grossly disregarding the rights of sick employees and pregnant women at the Graben site near Augsburg. The company rejects this. Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 28, 2015, p. 32.
  6. ↑ AOK Absence Report 2018: Those who like their job are sick less often. Doctors newspaper, September 4, 2018.
  7. ↑ Despite illness, every third person (!) Goes to work. In: heute.at. Accessed January 31, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Absence report. Accessed January 31, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Sick for work so as not to endanger the bonus. More money for healthy people: Amazon introduces controversial bonus system for employees. Focus, April 1, 2017, accessed April 2, 2017 .