Report on Australian’s Taking Unnecessary Sick Leave
1. Introduction
The infamous 'sickie', better known as sick leave, is leave that workers can take when they cannot attend work due to being sick or injured and is crucial so that employees are not forced to choose between caring for their deteriorating health or working to keep gaining income (Scheil-Adlung & Sandner, 2010). Unfortunately, the sickie is being constantly abused by perfectly healthy Australians for a variety of reasons that often don't actually being sick. People are beginning to believe that taking unwarranted sick leave is a right instead of a privilege, and it is causing major losses in company's profits. The purpose of this report is to identify the potential problems that are causing employees to take unnecessary sick days and the possible solutions to those problems.
In this report, the possible reasons for employee absenteeism being covered are that the workplace roster may not be flexible enough, the staff could possibly be not receiving a sufficient amount of vacation leave from the company, and also some staff may not be feeling mentally capable of attending work on certain days. These points will be supported in sources from peer-reviewed journal articles.
2. Analysis and Critical Evaluation
One reason that employees may be taking unnecessary sick leave is that there may be a lack of flexibility in their workplace. Flexibility in the workplace is a popular way for employees to balance and better manage demands of work, family, and social obligations by allowing employees to modify when and for how long their job related work is performed (Butler, Grzywacz, Ettner & Liu, 2009). Flexible work schedules are often adopted by employers as it giv...
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Over the last several years, the United States has experienced the emergence of countless lifestyle based illnesses. We have seen an increase of inactivity, poor nutrition, an increase of tobacco use, and more frequent alcohol consumption; Americans are living unhealthy lifestyles that are surely factors contributing to the pervasiveness of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases use to be seen as problems that older generations faced, but over the past several years the United States’ working age group has become a main target. For example, Americans are experiencing higher rates of diabetes, and heart disease. Conditions like these only lead to a diminished quality of life, could possibly lead to shorter life spans, disability, and quite possibly in the long run increased health care costs. Businesses are also impacted by an employees lifestyle decisions; absenteeism and presenteeism.
... then this is a culture difference between Mr. Higashi and the employee. However, if Kelly had intended on using the vacation for vacation and sick leave for sick leave then that means there is no vacation time allowed for Kelly to use for this vacation. The compromise would be that Mr. Higashi and Kelly would agree to use one day of sick leave and one day of vacation time off. This strategy would allow both parties to win to some degree and at the same time be able to keep an agreeable relationship between the two parties.
employee's job for a leave due to personal or family illness. It allows an employee to take up to 12
Miller, Claire Cain. “The Economic Benefits of Paid Parental Leave.” The New York Times. 30 January 2015.
Fani Marvasti, F., & Stafford, R. S. (2012). From Sick Care to Health Care — Reengineering Prevention into the U.S. System. New England Journal of Medicine, 367(10), 889-891. doi: doi:10.1056/NEJMp1206230
Flexibility in the workplace should be a benefit for the employee as well as the employer. According to Christensen, “Having flexibility in the workplace will ultimately lead to better morale, increase retention, and become an effective tool for recruitment.” (Christensen, 2005) Flexibility is an important factor toward overall workplace success. As mentioned by Christensen not only is this a great tool for companies to use for recruitment and retention, but improving diversity in the organization. Flexibility means taking a varied approach to the old way things are done. Some examples, changing work hours, location of where the work is done and restructure of the job. The traditional Monday thru Friday, nine to five work design is no longer the norm. Having a flexible work structure allows an organization to modify schedules for employees which in turn gives the employee opportunity to balance work and life. By doing this...
Many organizations face employee absence issues daily. The level of absence varies among each working industry. Strategies to reduce absenteeism rate differs between each organization. My retail company currently has an attendance policy in place, but absenteeism continues to be a problem. To find the solution to reduce absenteeism, I would have to understand the common causes of absenteeism, and then find different solutions to fix the problem. Proper communication and documentation of employee absences will improve absenteeism, employee productivity, and customer service.
If the health of employees can help or hinder a company, then why do companies still have sick days? With the “on the go” lifestyles, how can we not question the health of employees and their families. Today we have high stress jobs, rush hour traffic, and demanding schedules. Being healthy and fit is the way to conquer tomorrow.
Estimates vary widely on the cost to organizations of poor health in employees, with some estimates reporting losses in the billions of American organizations, not only from the loss of productivity and sick-leaves, but also as a result of caring for these illnesses. Cardiovascular heart-disease (CDH...
Increasing access to healthcare services for all Australians, particularly those of great disadvantage such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and promoting a shared care model by making better use of health staff through increasing individuals access to allied health care and working in multidisciplinary teams (Bennett 2013). Also taking on a more patient-centered approach to care to increase patient involvement and promote self-management (Harris & Zwar 2007). Furthermore, a focus more on the prevention, screening and early interventions of chronic illness rather than curative measures can prove as a beneficial change for the Australian health system (Harris & Zwar 2007). By incorporating these factors, the care for individuals with chronic illnesses can be enhanced leading to better health outcomes for patients, protecting the quality of life and wellbeing of Australians as well as reducing the healthcare costs (Harris & Zwar
The purpose of this report is to analysis and evaluate any management problems that are current in todays workforce in accordance to the well known ‘sick leave day’ also known as the Australian ‘sickie’ This report will be mainly focusing on the case study; Sick Leave Costing Employers (Schermerhorn, Davidson, Poole, Woods, Simon, & McBarron, 2014). Management of a business consists of 4 major functions, these include: Planning, Controlling, Organising and Leading (Schermerhorn, Davidson, Poole, Woods, Simon, & McBarron, 2014, p. 332). Sick leave is leave that employees are entitled to when they are unable to attend work due to the fact that they are either sick or injured (Schermerhorn, Davidson, Poole, Woods, Simon, & McBarron, 2014, p. 334). Within this report management problems will be identified, a discussion of these problems will occur and also any recommendations for the organisation that need to be implemented will be identified.
Company today doesn’t have a strong employee’s policy about the benefits and rules that are putting in place vacation, personal day, and sick day. To prevent absenteeism human resource have to researched in how important they human capital to they organization. They should separate the different department needed and how it effect productions when they is high absent from delay work. Usual company is not very clear about when to use your vacation and personal day. Also when to call out sick, what are the guideline?
The concept of flexibility has permeated much of current human resources management thinking, providing justification for recent developments in more flexible and variable working patterns. Its need arises from the following:
If staff are absent from work they are not able to carry out the functions for which they have been employed. In many businesses, these functions have to be taken on by someone else - if not, the customer could suffer. Reducing absenteeism is an important feature of human resource management. The extent to which absenteeism affects businesses has been a topical feature. Not only does absenteeism cause problems, but employers are beginning to recognise the effects of 'presenteeism' - staying at work when you are ill or because you believe that in some way your 'presence' will help boost your promotion prospects.
In Today’s world, the composition and how work is done has massively changed and is still continuing to change. Work is now more complex, more team base, depends greatly on technological and social skills and lastly more mobile and does not depend on geography. Companies are also opting for ways to help their employees perform their duties effectively so that huge profits are realized in the long term .The changes in the workplaces include Reduction in the structure of the hierarchy ,breakdown in the organization boundaries , improved and better management tactics and perspectives and lastly better workplace condition and health to the employees. (Frank Ackerman, Neva R. Goodwin, Laurie Dougherty, Kevin Gallagher, 2001)