Research Shows People Are Skipping Out On Work Too Often

Ian Hesketh, Cary Cooper

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Stop calling in sick!

Most people are familiar with presenteeism, where employees spend many more hours at the workplace than necessary – out of a sense of duty or to impress the boss or whatever. Presenteeism damages productivity, ultimately weakening the economy, and many companies now prioritise stamping it out.

A few years ago, our research into this sort of behaviour led us to identify a related but different phenomenon: employees using annual leave or other work entitlements, such as banked flexi-hours, to go off sick or to look after a relative or dependent. There was no name for such situations, so we called it leaveism.

As part of the same category, we also included employees taking work home that can’t be completed in normal working hours, or catching up on work while on leave or holiday. Half a decade later, the bad news is that leaveism appears to be getting more and more common.

A recent Deloitte report, Mental Health and Employers: Refreshing the Case for Investment, included a deep dive into the phenomenon. It found that 51% of employees were working outside contracted hours and 36% were taking allocated time off when they were, in fact, unwell. It also noted that 70% of respondents who had witnessed presenteeism in their organisation had also observed leaveism.

Worryingly for the future, the report said that younger professionals are more susceptible to taking leave in this way. They are also prone to burnout and financial worries, and twice as likely to suffer from depression as the average employee.

Little wonder that the BBC last year included leaveism in a review of the 101 people, ideas and things changing how we work today. It described the phenomenon as a “major scourge in the modern-day workplace”.

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