‘An epidemic of good health’ at the workplace

Abstract

Towards the end of 1986 a total of 32 workers who were frequently absent from work due to illness were made redundant at an engineering works. In 1987 sickness absences in the remaining work force were reduced by one third in comparison with the figures for the previous three years. In 1988 sickness absence figures started to climb again. The events are described from the point of view of the local health centre physician. The clinical and epidemiological features of the 'health epidemic' are demonstrated. Two comments are presented. The first concems the unspecificity of sickness absenteeism as a measure of illness. The second concems the concept of 'illness behaviour' which should not be taken as a phenomenon determined by a set of causes, but as a human activity construed in interaction between the individual and significant others.

Association of Contractual and Subjective Job Insecurity With Sickness Presenteeism Among Public Sector Employees

“…5,29 Nevertheless, this study controlled for self-rated health status, thus poor health among permanent employees is not likely to be behind our finding. Previous studies suggest that fear of unemployment and job insecurity may force employees to go to work despite feeling ill, [11][12][13][14] and our results are consistent with this suggestion. These findings highlight the importance of subjective insecurity as a risk factor for attendance to work when feeling sick.…”

“…12 Moreover, people are less likely to take sick leave when they are faced with the potential threat of job loss and unemployment. 13,14 A combination of downsizing and poor health has also been found to be associated with low sickness absence. 15 Thus, previous studies suggest that nonpermanent employees and those with high levels of job insecurity would be more prone than others to sickness presenteeism.…”

Sick leaves in four factories—do characteristics of employees and work conditions explain differences in sickness absence between workplaces?

“…The economic conditions of an enterprise and associated solutions regarding personnel policy also affect sickness absence. Fear of redundancy may reduce absences (27), but in the longer run downsizing may increase them, in particular if no corresponding reduction in production, or workload, takes place, as is typical in public-sector services (28). Outsourcing or the use of agency workers may "outsource" sickness absence or reduce the absence statistics visible in the records of the main employer.…”

Sick at work--a risk factor for long-term sickness absence at a later date?

“…Those taking no short-term SA would thus comprise a group of employees particularly prone to becoming ill at a later date because of shortage of restitution. Second, a u-curved association between short-term absence and different indicators of ill-health, eg, mortality, has been observed in different studies indicating that a clear SA record is not always an indicator of good health 10 11. Finally, a number of studies have tried to measure the impact of SP on employees’ productivity, reaching the conclusion that being absent can sometimes be less expensive for companies in terms of productivity, because employees are underperforming, when they turn up at work ill 7 8…”