Presenteeism increases absenteeism: study

Jul 26, 2009

Employees who work while ill in an attempt to reduce their need to take sick days actually may be causing the opposite effect.

A study of more than 6,000 workers conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, found that those people who worked while sick wound up requiring more future sick days than their colleagues who took appropriate sick leave. 

The research indicated that workers with more than five days of "presenteeism" – or working while ill – in one year increased the odds of requiring more than 30 sick days in the two following years by 40-50 percent. 

The study was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (Vol. 51, No. 6).