A good quarter of employees often go to work sick. This is shown by a survey by Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) published in Hamburg on Thursday. According to this, 23.5 percent of those surveyed often or very often complete the full working day despite illness. Around 58 percent do so at least sometimes. Only 17 percent state that they always stay at home when they are sick.
Drugs are often used in order to be able to work. At 21 percent, more than one in five managers do this frequently, and among employees without managerial responsibility it is 16 percent.
“Working sick doesn’t help anyone,” says TK CEO Jens Baas. If you feel fit with a mild cold, you can of course still be in action – especially in the home office. “But if you’re really ill, you have to recover.” Everything else harms the employees and ultimately the employers, says Baas. Possible consequences of “presenteeism” are delayed recovery, limited performance, more mistakes and accidents and the infection of colleagues.
According to the survey, working from home is making the problem even worse. At 46 percent, almost half of those surveyed stated that it is more common in the home office to work despite feeling ill. Twelve percent even work from home frequently, even though they are on sick leave.
There are many reasons
When asked about the reasons, the lack of a substitute is mentioned, but also that the disease is not contagious, one does not want to be a burden on colleagues, urgent work or appointments are pending or that the work is fun. In addition to managers, women and younger employees in particular stated that they often went to work despite illness.
According to TK, the study was carried out in cooperation with the Institute for Occupational Health Consulting (IFBG) and the aQua Institute for Applied Quality Promotion and Research in the Health Care System. A total of 1,233 employees were asked about their behavior when they were ill last May. (AFP/KNA)
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