Is Work Making us Sick?

It seems the tradition of ‘chucking a sickie’ is [ironically] alive and well in the workplace with, on average, workers taking 10 days off each year. It’s estimated that of this time we take 7.5 days for Sick Leave

Management response to these figures suggest that they don’t believe the sick leave claimed is legitimate, stating that between 10 & 25 per cent of absences are non-genuine…and in some cases they feel that their employees regard paid [personal & sick leave] to be an entitlement.

Organisations estimate that such absences (i.e. lost work time &/or lost productivity) costs the economy the economy [approx] $30 billion per year. Over the last three decades, with the introduction of improved modes of communication, i.e. email, smartphones, iPads etc… its reported that we are online and working more often and in more flexible locations than before.

A study produced for the ‘go home on time day’ estimated that Australian workers put in more than two billion hours of unpaid overtime each year, which equates to $72 billion…  this of course outweighs the cost of recorded absenteeism.

So are we really a nation of ‘layabouts’ or is there something more sinister happening? Perhaps given the additional hours being worked IS actually making us sick… Interestingly, it’s been found that workers feel that due to their work commitments they are too busy to actually do any physical exercise, and if they are sick, they don’t seem to have time to see their Doctor. This has lead to employees turning up for work despite their illness… of course they are not as productive as they could be as a result.

Some interesting Statistics to consider…

• 75% of absences are recorded as Sick Leave,
• 67% of Australian workers see paid absences as an entitlement,
• $26 billion is the estimated cost to productivity where workers turn up to work ‘Sick’ yet are unproductive,
• 27% of absentee days taken are reported as workers suffering form colds/flu or infections,
• $30 billion is the upper estimate of the cost to the Australian economy due to absenteeism, and
• 46% of Australian workers say work commitments stop them from doing physical exercise,