More than three-quarters of employees have witnessed colleagues going to work when ill
The amount of U.K. employees who aren’t calling in sick to work — even though they probably should — has more than tripled since 2010, according to a new survey.
Eighty-six percent of respondents said they’d seen sick employees coming to work — sometimes called presenteeism — in the past 12 months. That marks a 14 percent increase in the past year; in 2010, just 26 percent reported seeing employees going to work when ill.
Leaveism, the act of employees using allotted time, such as their annual leave, to do work, also appears to be increasing. More than two-thirds of survey respondents reported leaveism has occurred within their organization during the past year.
Many employers, however, don’t seem to be trying to correct either issue.
Only a quarter (25 percent) of companies that have experienced presenteeism say their organization has taken steps to discourage it in the past year. In 2016, 48 percent of employers actively tried to address the fact some employees were not calling in sick to work, even though they weren’t well.
Similarly, just 27 percent of companies with leaveism issues say their organization is taking action to stop it.