Going to work sick? You're costing yourself and your employer, research finds (DUH)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.livewellnebraska.com/health/going-to-work-sick-you-re-costing-yourself-and-your/article_6312567f-ade0-54fa-a807-857f2ffbbc5f.html

Posted: Thursday, January 7, 2016 12:15 am | Updated: 9:53 am, Thu Jan 7, 2016.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Too ill to work? Many people, and especially those with paid sick leave, stay home.

However, even people with sick leave regularly engage in “presenteeism” — going to work while ill. It’s the opposite of absenteeism, and its impact on the workplace has been a topic long sequestered in academic journals.

In the midst of winter’s cold and flu season, presenteeism is gaining interest in the American workplace for good reason: More costly than absenteeism, it is detrimental to employees and employers alike.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor says 39 percent of all American workers — or 41 million people — do not have paid sick leave. That means a lot of people are showing up for work while under the weather.

FULL story at link.

[Goblinmonger]

1. As a teacher,

it's a bigger pain in the ass to come up with lesson plans that a sub can execute than for me to just power through and show up. And I get 10 days of sick leave a year.

[hunter]

2. "Perfect" attendance shouldn't be celebrated, it should be scorned.

.

[alarimer]

3. Blame employers, not the employees who do this.

A lot of people don't even get sick leave. Think of all those hourly workers, for one thing.

Also, the trend these days is some bullshit leave pool which lumps everything together. Say if you get 15 days overall and use some of them when you are sick, it detracts from your vacation leave time (which people do not get enough of either).

In my case, we have to document each use of sick leave, which means a doctor's note, usually. Who goes to the doctor for a cold? No one. We can only use undocumented sick leave 5 times per year. Which is bullshit.

And then of course there's the whole work culture which means most of the time you are expected to come in unless you are truly ill. And nobody thinks a cold is truly ill, even if you feel like shit and don't get anything done.

[Brickbat]

5. The requirement of a doctor's note for every sick day drives me up the wall.

If employers want to reduce health care costs, they shouldn't force employees to go to the doctor.

[CTyankee]

6. You are right on! Everything you just wrote is what I experienced in my years of work.

I retired because I was 65 and every woman in the organization who was that age were being eased out, nicely or otherwise (I was threatened with a firing, put on probation blah blah, but gave my notice several months in advance and then they didn't DARE fire me, ha!).

I wonder if, now that the boss and the VPs are all in their 60s they are still doing that -- of course not...they're all still there...

When I retired I had two weeks sick leave accumulated and never took. I didn't dare.

[Brickbat]

4. "Too ill to work? Many people, and especially those with paid sick leave, stay home."

Articles like this need to be directed at employers and managers, not employees. Employees may feel they don't have a choice.