Employees continue to work through illness, study shows

Craig Stuart
Member - 106 posts

A shocking indictment of the state of employer/employee relations. Draconian sick-absence policies have made it impossible for genuinely ill members of staff to take the appropriate time off to recuperate. This leads to an atmosphere of fear; let alone an atmosphere of bugs and germs.

The survey showed that 29% of respondents 'do not want to let down colleagues'. Employers have an obligation (legal and moral) to ensure that employees do not feel they have to return too early. Unfortunately, many employers use this colleague ethic to their advantage by the use of emotional or professional blackmail.

My partner works for a high street retail giant (think nice food adverts). Their sickness policy treats everyone like a criminal; guilty until proven innocent. It does not operate flexibly and treats everyone the same - despite staff having a range of long-term illnesses.

If we are treat our staff in this way, using fear and blackmail as weapons, then it will eventually backfire. Genuine sick-absentees will become more and more disillusioned and simply move on to other jobs.