Calling in Sick: What’s Behind Your Employees’ Frequent Absence?

As an employer, you must be ready to receive a message from one or a couple of employees on some days, informing you of their reason for not coming in for work. This is part of running a business, and most employees who call in sick are usually back the next day or after a few days. Your experience with working (perhaps both as a former employee and now as an employer) can give you a better sense of whether an employee is really sick, responding to a family emergency, or is simply making up an excuse. Habitual absenteeism is a common sign of a lying and unreliable employee, and you may have to let them go. If more than one employee goes down with something all at the same time, or if they start calling in sick and don’t return within a reasonable timeframe, you may have to investigate.

Is your workplace clean and sanitary?

A common reason for sickness in employees is the unsanitary condition of their workplace. Have a professional check for the presence of disease-causing substances (e.g. asbestos), bacteria, or virus. Forte Commercial Cleaning Utah noted that you might also want to replace your cleaners with new janitorial services in Salt Lake City. This is if you find out that your current cleaners have not been doing their duties properly, causing the proliferation of bacteria, viruses, or allergens. Talk to your new cleaning service regarding what tools and chemicals they use.

Are your employees overworked?

Stress is also a primary cause of absenteeism. Another common reason for sick days is lower back pain, usually caused by long hours of sitting. If your employees are not ill, but they keep calling in sick, there may be something wrong with either their work habits or the work itself. In this case, talk to your supervisors and managers, and reevaluate the quality of work, the hours of work (do you often require overtime?), whether you are doing something about it, or if not, what you can do about it. There are different options you may take into account, such as outsourcing some of the work, hiring new employees, improving the delegation of tasks, giving your hardest working employees some extra time off after a project, or even the possibility of allowing deserving employees the option to work from home. It may also do your company a world of good if your relationship with your employees takes a turn for the better. After all, unpleasant bosses are often a source of unnecessary stress. Sick days are part of the normal working cycle, but when sick days become a weekly thing, something’s probably wrong.