Absenteeism in Workplace
Introduction
Absenteeism is one of the reasons that have a negative effect on the employee and the workplace. As the majority of businesses are dependent on their employees working in teams and completing tasks assigned, it becomes challenging for completing work tasks when employees are absent. Employee absenteeism can be expensive when it it becomes habitual as businesses suffers from the non-completing of tasks and increased burden on other employees. Absenteeism is also linked directly to the fall in productivity of teams within businesses, and organization uses other employees and hires supplemental employees to ensure their work is not delayed (Hennel, n.d.). There can be several reasons for absenteeism such as sickness, overwork, stress, depression, limited work, laziness, family troubles, low pay, lack of respect, lack of training, frustration, boredom, etc. (Sheehan, 2013). Overall, absenteeism is seen as a negative scenario in a business as it impacts both individual’s career and organization’s growth, and has a negative impact on workplace’s environment.
Causes of Absenteeism
There are several causes of absenteeism that have been experienced by businesses all over the world. Some of them are highly common among employees can lead to an employee missing a day from work. These causes are sickness, hangover, family troubles, laziness, etc. These reasons have limited impact on business as employees only take one or two days of work, or even a few hours in some cases. Then, there are other more serious reasons for absenteeism that is caused by greater concern an employee has related to his/her employment. Such reasons are depression, workplace stress, overwork, travel holidays, limited work, etc. Most of these reasons are involved with employees taking longer than a day of leave and can cause work to be delayed, unless employer does not assign the duties to other the employees or a substitute. Finally, there are sinister reasons for employee absenteeism and these causes have the greatest impact on organizational productivity and employee performance. These reasons include low pay, lack of respect, lack of motivation, harassment, etc. (Sheehan, 2013).
Effects of Absenteeism
On Employee
Resentment. Employees, who are forced to cover for an absent employee, may start feeling resentment towards them. It is possible that due to absenteeism of an employee, other employees might feel used and overworked. This feeling can lead to conflict within the organization as other employees might not be comfortable with the covering other’s work. The employee who remains absent might not get necessary help from subordinates and might struggle with adjusting effectively (Goodman, 1984).
Isolation. Due to excessive absenteeism, other employees might choose to isolate an employee and make him/her feel alone in the workplace. Such behaviour can be directly resulting from frustration of other employees as they are forced to work for the absent employee. Isolated employee might not be able to adjust to the environment of the businesses and would end up leaving anyways (Goodman, 1984).
Disruption. Employee absenteeism also hinders the growth of an employee as he/she might miss work sessions and training. This might lead to failure of the absent employees to acclimatize themselves and grow their career. Excessive absenteeism can force organizations to hold promotions and salary hikes as they feel employee cannot be trusted (Goodman, 1984).
Poor Performance. As an employee misses work and fails to provide necessary work hours, it is highly likely that the employee might not be able to deliver expected performance. In such a scenario, an employer might be forced to either warn the employee or terminate the employment. Absent employees are also not able to fully understand their role and job duties and create a negative environment in the organization (Goodman, 1984).
On Workplace
Replacement Cost. When employers need cover for their absent employees, they end up asking other employees to cover the work or hire supplementary workers. Permanent employees who stay back and complete the work of other employees would need to be paid for the overtime and the substitute employee might be paid wages. Therefore, absenteeism leads to increase in business expenses and is considered a major disadvantage (Goodman, 1984).
Culture of Absenteeism. When employees who are forced to work for other absent employees feel overworked, a culture of absenteeism is developed in the business. Overworked employees feel they are being used by the employer and might feel the burden of workplace stress. Over time, a culture of absenteeism is developed as employees feel that an employer would find someone to cover for them too. This is dangerous for the business as an employer would experience lower workplace productivity and would struggle to get it up soon (Goodman, 1984).
Productivity Loss. No business wants to experience loss of productivity, but absenteeism brings with it, declining productivity to a business. As employee absenteeism increases, an organization’s work efficiency is decreased. As one of the team members who is responsible for completing the task is not available, the process of competing tasks is slowed. The slow process causes declined productivity and employers are forced to consider alternative expenses to maintain the productivity rate (Goodman, 1984).
Loss of Customer. It is highly possible that employee absenteeism can lead to loss of customer. Customers might get frustrated when employees are not available to service them. This can cause a customer to seek alternative modes to get their work done and can easily cost business a regular customer. Absenteeism can also lead to a customer feel that their work is not important for customers and they might feel that they can the work done by someone else. It is quite common that businesses might miss deadlines when employee absenteeism in high and customer might feel dissatisfied with the service (Goodman, 1984).
Threatens Routines. With employee absenteeism, routine of employees is halted as one member of the production process is not available. This means that other members of the team might need to overwork and complete the final delivery. As routines are halted, other employees might feel misused and might get demotivated to work. Absent employee might return late and can struggle to cope with the work done by others and the amount of work left for him to complete. Employee absenteeism is capable of having a negative impact on business culture (Goodman, 1984).
Threatens Safety. Another main impact employee absenteeism can have on the workplace is safety issues. It is possible that employees hired to replace the absent employee might not be trained to deal with the processes and the final product prepared can be of inferior quality. In case of manufacturing, safety of customers is terminated when production is not done in an efficient manner and supplement employee might end up missing a few safety checks (Goodman, 1984).
Conclusion
Employee absenteeism is one of the major concerns for businesses as they need to ensure that it is restricted to the minimum. Employee absenteeism can be due to minor or major reasons, but the impact of both needs to be controlled, or it can have a several negative impacts on the absent employee and the workplace. The absent employee might feel isolated at work, other employees might develop resentment towards the absent employee, employee’s growth can be disrupted, and performance standards can decline. The workplace can experience rising replacement costs, a culture of absenteeism can be developed in the workplace, productivity can reduce, businesses can lose customers, and safety and work routines can be threatened.
References
Goodman., P.S. (1984). Effects of Absenteeism on Individuals and Organizations. Retrieved 22 June 2016 from, http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1836&context=tepper
Hennel., P. (n.d.). Measuring The Impact of Absenteeism on a Manufacturing Business. Retrieved 23 June 2016 from, http://www.silvon.com/blog/impact-of-absenteeism/
Sheehan., J. (2013, 2 May). How Absenteeism Affects Businesses & How It Can Be Dealt With. Retrieved 23 June 2016 from, http://www.hrzone.com/community-voice/blogs/jamessheehan/how-absenteeism-affects-businesses-how-it-can-be-dealt-with
