‘Leaveism’ and ‘presenteeism’ continue even when employers are more flexible – here’s how to be happier at work

Means again in February 2020, earlier than most of us actually knew something about COVID, we wrote an article for The Dialog about “leaveism” and its impression on versatile working. Barely a month later, the world was bracing for a pandemic that may inadvertently create the biggest (compelled) working experiment of all time.

This was an awesome alternative for researchers like us to observe how working from house solved or exacerbated the workload issues that workers and managers had been coping with head to head within the years earlier than COVID. For a lot of, the “office” was now the kitchen desk or spare bed room. The distinction was there was no supervisory bodily presence.

So, when the pandemic introduced folks with a golden alternative to work remotely – and to some extent flexibly – it was fascinating to look at how the workforce responded. What we discovered was that working from house didn’t resolve any issues, it merely moved them to a unique location.

We first coined the time period “leaveism” in 2013 to elucidate some beforehand undescribed office practices:

utilizing allotted day without work reminiscent of annual depart entitlements, flexi hours banked, re-rostered relaxation days and so forth, to take day without work when they’re the truth is unwell

utilizing these depart entitlements to take care of dependents, together with youngsters or aged family (quite than for relaxation and recuperation)

taking work house that can’t be accomplished in regular working hours (attributable to extreme workload)

working whereas not at work, on depart or vacation to catch up (or sustain!).

As you possibly can in all probability think about, the pandemic and associated lockdowns and restrictions to working practices had a major impression on all of those practices. It additionally affected these ascribed to “presenteeism”, which is if you go into work however aren’t working at your full potential since you’re unwell.

Learn extra:
Why employees in small companies can wrestle with psychological well being and ‘presenteeism’

Discovering a brand new regular

Now, as we emerge from the darkish days of the pandemic, most corporations try to determine what the brand new working “regular” might be: hybrid, distant or calling everybody again to the workplace 5 days every week? Many companies will discover that the most suitable choice is very idiosyncratic, relying on the organisation, its workers, business and lots of different particular person components. However these selections are additionally prone to make a giant distinction to ranges of illness absence, presenteeism and leaveism in immediately’s organisations.

Certainly, the speculations we made about taking work house in February 2020 are all just about the norm now, based on our newest analysis. These adjustments had been triggered in an sudden means, however nonetheless taking work house, and juggling work and residential life are actually just about on a regular basis enterprise for many.

Our earlier e-book, written throughout COVID lockdowns, documented views from a lot of totally different organisational settings. All of them largely got here to the identical conclusions round homeworking throughout that point: there are benefits but additionally some unfavourable elements of house working and versatile working. For instance, workers could discover there are big monetary advantages in working simply from house, saving on time and journey prices. Downsides could embody insufficient house within the house to work, limitations with web or different technological blockers.

Our newest examine, defined in our e-book Wellbeing at Work, examined the results of lockdown on workplaces and the way the steadiness has tilted from illness absenteeism to sharp rises in presenteeism and leaveism. Different latest analysis additionally reveals that, regardless of way more homeworking throughout and after pandemic lockdowns, 43% of individuals nonetheless expertise presenteeism and barely extra (47%) leaveism.

The right way to assist folks be completely satisfied at work

However managers are actually way more aware, or needs to be, of the results of those phenomena within the office. And there are methods to assist negate the impacts of those practices, each on the workforce and on companies. Whether or not a line supervisor works in the identical bodily house as their worker or not, good management is essential.

Crucially, line managers want good emotional intelligence. That’s, to grasp how their workers are feeling and fascinated by issues that have an effect on their lives. Managers who’ve excessive ranges of this (referred to as EQ) are inclined to have higher relationships with their groups, which might result in excessive ranges of dedication and energy from them.

Creating such very important “comfortable” abilities helps managers discover out what they should know concerning the circumstances of their staff members with out making undesirable intrusions into their non-public lives. This looks as if a tough line to decipher, however for individuals who are adept at navigating it, the rewards are big.

New working patterns

Analysis reveals that good line administration could make the distinction between having nice days at work and having a depressing time. When the latter happens, chances are you’ll witness the emergence of leaveism and presenteeism. These are tell-tale indicators that individuals is probably not completely satisfied, really feel uncomfortable or are certainly pondering of leaving (normally measured as intentions to give up).

Having mentioned all of this, workers are going through extraordinary challenges throughout this unsure interval for working lives. Organisations are managing shifts in coverage in respect of distant versus workplace working. And the right mixture is as but unclear, however relies on a number of private circumstances.

On this atmosphere, alternatives for constructive growth of workers can appear few and much between. However managers should take into consideration the sustainability of their groups and make investments wherever attainable in issues that may assist create extra good days at work than unhealthy for everybody.