Your employees are your greatest assets. They generate your revenue, earn you profit, and play a significant role in keeping your company going. All’s well and good initially; however, a problem arises when they’re sitting on a desk from 9-5, attached to a computer. A monotonous lifestyle is bound to create a shift, not in the lifestyle, but in the mindset.
See, two things happen when your employees are working. One: they are working and working, productive beyond measure. Two: they become absent-minded, lost in the words they type. It becomes worse when one transforms into two as well. Now, if not all, then most of your employees are absent-minded. The issue here is how you identify absent-mindedness. Is it absent-mindedness, or do they take too many off days?
A specific routine can get on to the heart, and it’s worse if the seat is weak. Absenteeism is essentially a lack of attendance at work without any valid reason. Many people take leaves because they need a break, and some take them because they might feel lazy. Supervisors will never know the truth because calling in sick is as easy as falling off a log. There are, however, quite a few reasons why employee absenteeism rates are high.
Burnout
Research proves that burnout is directly connected to decreased performance in the workplace (Ruotsalainen et al., 2015). This phenomenon may lead to multiple withdrawal symptoms, such as absenteeism and intention to leave the job (Alarcon, 2011; Kim and Kao, 2014).
Burnout does not just involve a reduced interest but is a form of exhaustion. It acts like a seed that grows to be a plant. It will continue to reap results, majorly negative, eventually taking a toll on one’s mental energy. To have money come into your account, you will still go to work, but with low motivation rates and a reduced sense of accomplishment. This dissatisfaction has much to do with your environment, too.
In all honesty, if your employee’s friends are with them or have someone they like at their workplace, attendance would benefit, wouldn’t it? It is all about forming a feeling of homeliness where you work. They are giving 9 hours of their day, the crunch of their time, to your workplace, and if you are not satisfied, that means you are simply not receiving it. Maslach (1982) defined burnout as a psychological syndrome that includes emotional exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and depersonalization among professionals working with different people in relatively demanding situations.
Other Reasons
Employees can feel particularly vulnerable at the next workplace. One of the reasons they can demonstrate absenteeism is because they are dealing with personal issues. These emotional issues can involve commitments at home or those within relationships. It can get tricky to juggle so much together.
Having no control of your work or what you oversee can be particularly tough on the brain. As humans born to live and love, society has enforced so much on us that managing emotions with our work is difficult. An age-old traditional idiom says you won’t succeed if you don’t put your heart into something. What do you do? Put your seat at work, then what do you give to your family? Your employees give so much to their families; they have nothing left to bring to their presentation at work.
There is too much to juggle and not too many hands to help. Swamped with expectations, your employee takes a break. A break means an off day. They feel loosened and relaxed. And it helps. So, they take more and more and more. While it is understandable, the fact remains that if they can’t do the job, you will find someone else to do it for you. Even the boss will get fired if the deadline is not met at the end of the day. You must come up with a middle ground.
Solution
What if you introduce tight work timings with workload divided at points that we, as humans, can logically fulfill? What if you put yourself in their position and target precisely that? It is laborious and time-consuming but think about the results it would reap. It is a one-time effort that would be long-lasting and ease your conscience. Of course, prolonged absences cannot compromise work, and your employee cannot be absent every other day, but you can have additional help, can’t you?
Companies must rethink policies that help establish facts and figures for bosses and employees—the narrative changes when we change our perspectives. You can set up procedures to reduce absenteeism, and your employees will follow them, but what if you change the way you see absenteeism and develop a solution that would help in the long term?
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