Absenteeism in school

Due to illogical excuses, people continue to miss work. Despite the fact that the conduct initially seems to have no consequences because it is believed that skipping work will only have an impact for a few hours or days, the consequences are negative when considered over the course of a year.
After conducting research, I share my findings regarding the reasons why people are absent from work, potential preventative steps that may be taken to stop the practice, and the direct and indirect costs that are experienced by an organization as a result of absenteeism.
Absenteeism
Employees who consistently miss work frequent behaviour in which an employee misses work with no good reason to do so (Stredwick, 2013). In a work setting, employees embrace absenteeism when they want to go on vacation or any other errand that cannot grant them a proper reason to be given a day off. Being away from work under permission from the relevant authority is not an act of absenteeism. My essay will feature a nurse/doctor career and effects of absenteeism.

Causes of Absenteeism

Absenteeism is a practice that is witnessed in almost every work setting. Absenteeism might be for the right or wrong reasons but the most common type of excuses that lead to work absenteeism include;

Bullying and Harassment

Studies have found that in a work setting where unity is not embraced and co-workers and bosses seem to be conflicting and harassing each other, cases of absenteeism are always high. The reason is that workers may want to avoid such a setting to have peace of mind hence they will always raise excuses to stay away from work (Kocakulah et al., 2016)

Employees and employers are supposed to promote teamwork and unity and adopt good measures and approaches to handling issues such that nobody feels targeted and unwanted, working together provides a good avenue to increase productivity through consulted decision making which promotes an organizational mission and vision.

Child Care and Elder Care

The elderly and children need a lot of watch. When workers are balancing between watching the young or the elderly at home and being at work, some conflict arises between the two duties, for the reason, the worker may end up skipping work to attend to children or the elderly at home (Kocakulah et al., 2016). Such a scenario arises especially when normal arrangements are broken by situations such as emergencies where children/elderly fall ill and a change of plan and time arises.

Stress, Burnout and Low Morale

Another reason for absenteeism in a work setting includes stress, low morale and burnout.

Burnout. Burnout occurs especially with people who overwork to beat datelines or to achieve a particular aim and once achieved they set another goal (workaholics). Working for a long time may be appealing today but will have consequences tomorrow where the body will need some rest, and in the event, one may end up skipping work. People should, therefore, take required breaks to avoid being burned out (Stredwick, 2013).

Stress and low Morale. Stress occurs when an event with a negative implication in one’s life occurs, i.e. when a patient dies in a hospital, the nurse or doctor attending to the patient ends up feeling depressed. In such an event one loses the morale for work and may be prompted to miss work (Stredwick, 2013). Doctors and nurses should, therefore, accept that they did their best, but the situation was beyond them hence they will recover from stress and build up morale for work.

Disengagement

Disengagement can lead to absenteeism where one is not happy with the kind of job he/she is doing. Disengagement reduces the morale and motivation for work hence people disengaged from their jobs end up skipping work (Kocakulah et al., 2016)

Job Hunting

Job hunting occurs majorly with people who are disengaged from their current work hence go on job seeking. With activities that come with job seeking such as interviews and vetting practices, absenteeism is nurtured (Kocakulah et al., 2016)

Illness and Injuries

Accidents can occur at work hence leading to absenteeism. Employers and employees skip jobs when they are seeking medication for injuries and ailments suffered. Chronic and acute injuries are among the major causes of absenteeism at work.

Partial Shifts

Partial shifts have been known to be a cause of absenteeism where workers may misinterpret the schedule and end up missing work (Stredwick, 2013). Arriving late or taking early breaks are also forms of absenteeism as they affect productivity at work.

Costs that Result from Absenteeism

Direct Costs

Wages Paid to Absent Employees

When an employee is paid for a role s/he did not play in an organization to make the pay worthy, the organization will be running at a loss for the reason that the productivity role that was to be played by the employee to breed a positive result to arise to a profit was not done hence he negatively impacted an organization but still gets paid which is a double loss to the organization (Kocakulah et al., 2016)

High Costs Incurred in Replacing workers

When workers are absent for work for whichever reason discussed above, they will need to be replaced at some point for the good of an organization as a whole. During employee replacement, the organization uses a lot of money to advertise, interview and recruit new workforce (Kocakulah et al., 2016)

Administrative Costs to Counter Absenteeism

When absenteeism is increasing in the organization, the relevant authority will need to enact measures to counter the behaviour, and this may include having to set up mandatory sick leaves where employees are given a number of days yearly to use when seeking in an aim to cut the lies of skipping work to seek medication. Such measures will result in costs that would have otherwise been avoided (Kocakulah et al., 2016)

Indirect Costs

Reduced Productivity

When workers skip work, the roles they are expected to partake are left unattended, and this breeds a void along the service delivery process. Even when replacements for the time are put in, the advantage of specialization is missed hence the expected service quality will be dropped which negatively affects the organization, i.e. when a nurse steps in place of a missing therapist, the advantage of specialization lacks. The lack of specialization may result in loss in potential customers leading to losses to the organization (www.forbes.com)

Poor Morale among Employees who Chip in for Absent Worker

When a worker skips work, a co-worker who might have done his or her shift may need to step in to cover for the missing colleague, in such a scenario, the worker stepping in may feel overworked and demoralized to work at the time since s/he had already played the role during his time. The scenario may even result in conflicts among co-workers or towards the management (www.forbes.com)

Safety Issues

When a worker is absent, and one is required to chip in, the lack of specialization may expose one to risks, i.e. when a nurse steps in to a radiologist’s role, the lack of specialization may expose him or her to risks from rays. A nurse stepping on a doctor’s role may also risk a patient due to the lack of specialization on the doctor’s role, and this may result in costs incurred in providing employee medication (www.forbes.com)

How management can reduce Absenteeism

Reducing Short Time Datelines that Overwork Employees

When an employee is given a task to accomplish in a short length of time, the employee will end up overworking which results to burn out and reduced morale. When management give required time to employees for task accomplishments, absenteeism will be reduced (Cucchiella et al., 2014).

Setting Employee Welfare Discussion Forums

As earlier discussed, job seeking and disengagement breed absenteeism. When people in management create forums for employees to air their dissatisfactions and suggestions, the management will have a glimpse of changes needed in the work setting to retain employees, and by doing so, disengagement and job seeking will be cut hence absenteeism avoided (Cucchiella et al., 2014).

Promoting Team Work and Working as Family

When teamwork and harmony are embraced in an organization, people work together, and work bonds are nurtured, a factor which increases productivity. Teamwork also cuts absenteeism arising from bullying and harassment at work (Cucchiella et al., 2014).

Adjusting Work Schedules for Some Employees

Employees such as those taking care of the elderly and children can have a schedule readjustment to a time that suits them to avoid absenteeism from their end. The management can let them work at a time when the children or elderly persons are in some care setting, i.e. foster homes and have the employees off when the special persons are around home (Cucchiella et al., 2014).

Conclusion

From the discussion, it is evident that absenteeism is on the verge of crippling our economy due to the impacts discussed. However, there are counteractive measures that can be adopted to ensure that absenteeism is cut in a workplace and productivity nurtured. Those in management should embrace the mentioned counteractive measures to reduce absenteeism.





































References

https://www.forbes.com/sites/investopedia/2013/07/10/the-causes-and-costs-of-absenteeism-in-the-workplace/#4b3d4af53eb6

Cucchiella, F., Gastaldi, M., & Ranieri, L. (2014). Managing absenteeism in the workplace: the case of an Italian multiutility company. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150, 1157-1166.

Stredwick, J. (2013). An introduction to human resource management. Routledge.

Kocakulah, M. C., Kelley, A. G., Mitchell, K. M., & Ruggieri, M. P. (2016). Absenteeism problems and costs: causes, effects and cures. The International Business & Economics Research Journal (Online), 15(3), 89.