People who work in open-plan or shared offices get sick more often Employees in open-plan workspaces take more sick leave than those with their own offices. If you share an office with one or more colleagues, your risk of taking sick leave increases significantly, a new Norwegian study shows.
Men are stricter than women when it comes to sick leave More men than women find it unacceptable to stay home when work is stressful or they’ve just had a breakup, a new study shows. Other studies suggest the opposite.
Your sick leave infects your colleagues, too Norway requires a general practitioner to certify an employee’s sick leave if he or she will be absent from work for more than three days. A Norwegian study that looked at 22,000 employees and their 114,000 colleagues found that if a GP certifies 5 days of sick leave for an employee, that employee’s closest colleagues will also have more sick days.
Little malingering among Norwegian employees Norwegians rarely take extra days off work on the false pretence of being sick. The risk of pay-back time when salary raises are granted could be an explanation.
Workmates affect your sick leaves Swedes have found that colleagues’ leaves of absence due to illnesses can impact the number of days you are off sick. But an experiment in Norway shows that absenteeism can be reduced when confidence in employees is coupled with controls.
Measures to limit work absence no help Sick leave rates do not drop when employers take measures to help older employees or employees with health problems.