Table of Contents
Stress and Absenteeism – Lack of recognition from bosses
Stress and absenteeism at work are strongly linked. It seems that despite overwhelming evidence that demonstrates the positive impact of recognizing employees in organizations, many leaders do not practice it.
The feeling of being valued and appreciated at work is directly linked to the happiness and commitment of the employees, irrespective of the workload. Organisations that implement employee recognition programs report a continual increase in the satisfaction of their employees, the humanity of the workplace, the reduction of turnover and the improvement of employee relationships.
Recognition of the excellent work of staff increases productivity and creates a culture of committed employees that positively impacts the company’s bottom line. Today’s employees are more willing to deliver results when their work is celebrated, and they want to be recognized for the success that affects business. Allowing employees to innovate and be agile will only help companies grow and remain competitive.
According to a recent study, 24% of employees consider leaving their jobs because their report manager lacks skills or provides insufficient feedback on performance.
Role Conflict
Role conflicts occur when there is a conflict between the different roles a person takes and plays in his or her everyday life. For example, an employee of a grocery store who is personally against gambling but sells lottery tickets as part of her job has a conflict in their role.
We all have many roles and responsibilities in our lives, ranging from sons and daughters to friends and family members. Role conflicts occur when a person has professional duties, which he mainly occupies himself with, which interfere with the responsibility for family life.
Work-Family conflicts (WFC) are the most common form of workplace role conflicts. Still, family-work conflicts (FWC) can also be the result of a variety of other factors, such as age, gender, race, religion, ethnicity, education, etc.
Work-Family conflicts are a form of role conflict that occurs when the roles and demands of work and family are not compatible. WFC occurs in a variety of ways, such as at work – home conflicts, family conflicts, labour conflicts and workplace role conflicts.
Sometimes there are conflicts within the role that arise when there are incompatibilities within a role; also, there are conflicts between roles, leading to stress in the workplace. Conflicts between roles occur when two or more functions are not compatible. Work-Family conflicts arise when a work role hinders the successful exercise of a family role.
Another form of role conflict occurs when an individual in one role has to behave in a certain way that differs from the way he or she has to act in another position. For example, a senior manager might be required to be authoritarian toward subordinates, but he would be expected to behave differently when he makes contact with friends. Invariably, the persistence of the conflict leads to symptoms of stress, burnout and absenteeism at work.
Why are there role conflicts?
Role conflicts can arise from the attempt to meet the expectations of a superior and the needs of an employee at the same time, as well as from a conflict of interest between the two.
If you experience role conflict at work, then you are likely to suffer misery at work that will result in reduced work performance.
A conflict in tasks means that there is a conflict between one or more members of the organization who are performing a task. Conflicts like this are a source of stress at work.
Stress from Deadlines at Work
Other sources of stress are related to deadlines. Working under the pressure of a deadline can derail your workflow and bleed into the day, whether you work hard all day to get a project off the ground or have a last-minute schedule.
Excessive workloads and unrealistic deadlines make people feel rushed, pressured and overwhelmed—the smaller and shorter the deadline, the less room for delay. The emerging pressure then leads to additional workplace stress.
Deadlines can be stressful enough at the best of times, but also incredibly overwhelming when they affect various aspects of work life. It is terrible for one person to experience the immense effects of stress due to deadlines. It is even worse for a whole team to go through the same difficult situation.
If you can’t control your time or meet deadlines, it’s possible to turn the pressure into a panic
If your deadlines are always tight, you will feel an increase in stress levels from the moment you set them, no matter how hard you work. Deadlines can be particularly troubling if you have no idea how much time you need to complete a task.
In extreme cases, the intensity of the deadline can lead to becoming incapacitated, feeling overwhelmed, and those affected may avoid coming to work.
Stress and Absenteeism – Job Unsuitability or Unpreparedness
If you feel overwhelmed at work, you lose confidence and can become angry, irritable and withdrawn.
Insufficient skills and competencies to perform a job, and lack of preparation for a job, are stressors that often lead to negative workplace experiences that could affect the way people interact with colleagues, their partners and children.
Stress and Absenteeism – Concerns About Job Security and Career Paths
Concerns about job security are prominent during an economic recession like that imposed on the world by COVID-19 where many employees have been furloughed. For most furloughed workers, there are fears of job insecurity, resulting in heightened stress symptoms and potential mental health problems.
Concerns about job security lead to a lack of confidence and dissatisfaction with the job.
Workers who are heavily invested in their jobs seem to be more affected by job insecurity. For those concerned about job security, their level of performance suffers because they no longer put all their effort into their work as they used to, feel anxious, and are unable to manage stress and anxiety. There is likely to be an increase in the rate of absenteeism in such workers.
Another source of concerns for job security is seeing how many candidates with little or no industry experience being interviewed for jobs in your department; this may signal that your organisation wants to cut costs by replacing experienced employees with newcomers. There are legitimate concerns that such an exercise can lead to layoffs.
Other employers may invest in new technology to reduce personnel costs but claim to improve efficiency to make tasks easier to complete simply.
Stress and Absenteeism – Environmental Discomforts at Work and Absenteeism
Workstations and working conditions can be uncomfortable and could lead to chronic physical 
discomfort and related illnesses. The risk of sickness and absence increases with back pain.
There are also psychological and organisational burdens that can be associated with unsafe working environments.
An uncomfortable work environment means that many employees have problems with their job through environmentally-induced illnesses. Consequently, coming to work becomes a safety and health burden to them and the organisations. Research has shown that productivity losses due to depression and pain at work are twice as high as when workers are absent under the same conditions. It costs employers more to have workers who are suffering pain and depression at work than for them to stay at home.
People generally start without noticeable pain or discomfort. Still, eventually, they begin to notice pain when they sit at their desks for too long, stand on the floor for too long, or do a series of repetitive everyday tasks.
Back pain is one of the most common causes of lost work, accounting for more than 12 million days of lost time each year in the United States.
The primary sources of injuries at work are manual lifting and moving of objects.
Absenteeism at Work and Sexual Concerns
Sexual harassment can have a devastating effect on victims’ professional performance and career development. It can lead to people withdrawing from work, reducing confidence and causing depression, anxiety and even suicide.
Reporting sexual harassment by victims can have negative consequences like being excluded from important meetings, being labelled as troublemakers, and passed over for promotions. The hostility generated by harassment leads to a loss of trust in the workplace and a lack of respect for others.
Workplace harassment harms workers, including loss of performance and higher turnover and a decline in productivity.
Sexual harassment, while causing immediate suffering to victims, can also affect their work performance and professional progress, resulting in victims become more absent from work and being forced out of their jobs and income entirely.
A work environment in which sexual harassment is not dealt with appropriately is a sign that hostile work culture is developing.
Absenteeism at Work and Marital Difficulties
Family commitments, especially marital difficulties, can limit the ability to participate in work, even if attendance and motivation are high.
Workers that experience domestic bullying by partners had the highest absenteeism rates. Divorce also affects regular attendance at work, as the divorce process can be emotionally draining and distracting.
The impact of divorce on the atmosphere and productivity at work is significant. This life event leads to a considerable amount of stress.
Concerns About Children/Grandchildren and Absenteeism at Work
Working parents often have difficulties with childcare; this is a source of work-related stress and absenteeism.
Where travelling is an essential work obligation, employers with childcare difficulties become conflicted if appropriate arrangements are not made about their children’s welfare before work-related travels.
The strain of childcare on parents and grandparents often results in periods of absence from work, creating functional limitations and higher levels of stress in the employees concerned.
Furthermore, the physical and mental health of children whose parents or grandparents are gainfully employed determines how often the concerned parents are absent from work.
Childcare challenges are pushing parents out of work. Today, many families with young children have to choose between spending more time and money looking after their children, or finding a part-time job with a low-wage employer, or giving up work altogether to become full-time caregivers.
A few days of child care do not meet the needs of parents, who have to coordinate with the full-day care and pay for it all year round.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), an estimated 2 million parents have sacrificed their careers over the last decade, and an estimated 1.5 million of these mothers have had to make sacrifices as a result of the childcare crisis.
Absenteeism at Work and Concerns About Elderly Parents
Stress and absenteeism in single women is common. Single women who care for their elderly parents are twice as likely to live in old age poverty as non-carers.
Caregivers of elderly parents are more likely to take time off work and miss work intermittently. Regular absences from work can increase job stress as it heightens the risk of job insecurity.
Absenteeism at Work and Financial Problems
Workers with money worries are less healthy and have higher absenteeism. The majority of indebted workers missed at least a full week of work last year, and two-thirds did not get enough sleep. Workers with the highest debt missed an additional full week of work.
Generally, people are more concerned about money than any other area of life. For starters, workers with low financial well-being are more likely to have sleepless nights, suffer depression and anxiety, and have trouble sleeping, according to a recent study.
Absenteeism at Work and Health Problems
Poor health is so often the result of a combination of risk factors, including physical and mental aspects. There is no doubt that chronic illness adversely affects work attendance leading to prolonged absenteeism.
There are employees with chronic illness who return to work but are not fully functional. The practice where sick employees are not fully functional for 30 days a year due to chronic illness is referred to as presenteeism.
One of the consequences of presenteeism is the loss of productivity. Many employees fall into this category as the thought of losing their job due to poor physical health, and chronic illness can result in chronic stress.
Those with poor health often have difficulty in assigning tasks to themselves due to injury or certain health conditions; sometimes work slower than usual, have to repeat tasks and make increasingly serious mistakes. Inevitably, such workers are likely to face accusations of misconduct at work. This scenario is a significant stressor for those concerned.