Association between adjustment latitude and sickness presence - A panel study of Swedish employees

Teleworking While Sick: A Three-Wave Study of Psychosocial Safety Climate, Psychological Demands, and Presenteeism

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in the proportion of employees for whom teleworking became mandatory. Presenteeism, or the behavior of working while ill, has hardly been studied in the context of telework. The pandemic forced millions of workers to abruptly transition to working from home for a prolonged period of time, leaving employers often unaware of their health status or work capacity of the workers. This change also eroded the work experience itself, the workplace, and their protective impact on both individual health and work outcomes. This study focused on the longitudinal relationships among psychosocial safety climate (PSC), a lead indicator of workplace conditions, psychological demands, an indicator of quality of work, and presenteeism among a representative sample of teleworkers. PSC was expected to have an indirect impact on presenteeism with psychological demands as a mediator of this impact. Method: We collected the data from a representative sample of teleworkers in the first months (T1: April, T2: June, and T3: December 2020) of the pandemic using a three-wave online survey (n = 275). We tested a model of PSC as a determinant of presenteeism in teleworkers with psychological demands as a mediator. A cross-lagged panel model was estimated to test cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships. Findings: As expected, psychological demands increased over time. Contrary to expectations, the prevalence of presenteeism remained unchanged while PSC increased over time. The data fully supported the mediating effect of psychological demands such that a higher evaluation of PSC at T1 led to lower psychological demands at T2, which led to reduced presenteeism at T3. We also found a reciprocal relationship, with higher psychological demands at T2 leading to decreased evaluation of PSC at T3. These results show that the perception of teleworkers on their organization as giving a high priority to their psychological health is an important determinant of their work experience, ultimately influencing their decision to work while ill. The context of the pandemic has highlighted the importance of a positive workplace climate and working conditions for reducing the behaviors that can be harmful to health and productivity. Implications for theory and practice, beyond the pandemic, are discussed.

Sickness presenteeism: Are we sure about what we are studying? A research based on a literature review and an empirical illustration

BACKGROUND

There has been an increasing interest in studying sickness presenteeism (SP). An ever-increasing amount of scientific literature is published using this term, yet there appears to be considerable heterogeneity in how it is assessed, which could result in substantial differences in the definition and interpretation of the phenomenon really being studied. We aim to discuss what really is being studied, depending on how the phenomenon is operationalized, measured, and analyzed.

METHODS

A study based on a literature review and an empirical illustration using data of the third Spanish Psychosocial Risks Survey (2016).

RESULTS

Differences are observed based on the population in which SP is measured, the cut-off points used to define a worker as presenteeist, the reasons for an SP episode and even an analysis of the phenomenon treated as a count or as a dichotomous.

CONCLUSIONS

Without being completely exclusive, it seems that restricting the population of analysis to only those workers who consider that they should not have gone to work due to their health, and/or establishing low cut-off points to define someone as presenteeist, would more clearly delimit the study of SP to the exercise of a right to sick leave. In contrast, working with the entire population or using high cut-off points appears to relate the study of SP more with health status and less with the exercise of rights. On the other hand, taking the reasons for SP into account would probably help to improve interpretation of the phenomenon.

Sickness presenteeism as coping behaviour under conditions of high job control

Job control – denoting an employee’s decision authority regarding timing, location or method – plays a key role in occupational research and is typically viewed as a positive resource that helps to buffer negative health effects induced by work demands. Moreover, previous research has suggested that higher job control helps to reduce sickness presenteeism of employees – defined as attending work while ill. Conversely, by considering various theoretical approaches (such as the vitamin model and the ‘entreployee’ concept) it is hypothesized that very high levels of job control may increase sickness presence behaviour of employees as a coping strategy aimed at overcoming a perceived threat of productivity loss due to sickness. As a consequence, a u-shaped curvilinear association between job control and sickness presenteeism is expected – especially for vulnerable individuals. Based on survey data collected from a heterogeneous random sample of 532 employees, a curvilinear association between job control and sickness presenteeism is confirmed, which is amplified for individuals with a higher number of days with sickness. It is concluded that an increase in job control at low or moderate levels is associated with reduced sickness presenteeism, whereas very high levels of job control are related to an increased need for sickness presence.