Management Related Issues and their Effect on Sick Leaves

Employee satisfaction and its relationship with sick leaves

There are some common health related complains AMS Pte ltd that make workers request for medical leave certificates. However, a good number of this is not completely based on health related issues. Some of them take medical leave certificates because of other reasons such as  work related stress, dissatisfaction with the working environment, dissatisfaction with their bosses and the administration at large, job dissatisfaction among other issues. Many workers have a belief that like annual leave, sick leave is a ‘benefit’, which is not the truth of the matter. Workers tend to abuse continuously it to the disadvantage of the employer.

Dissatisfaction with the boss and the company administration, at large, results from various factors. They - the company administration have a major influence on the psychological working conditions such as decision making, skill discretion and job demands. Poor participation of workers in the above has been proven to increase the rate at which workers take sick leaves (Vahtera et al., 2000). Though with a bit of controversy, Vahtera et al., suggested that the rate of sick leaves could be reduced significantly if some specific improvements were made in the psychological environment at work. 

Stress related to work occurs when one’s ability to cope is not equal to the demands at work (Atchison 1999).  The life of a person is given a structure by the work he/she does.  Some amount of pressure at work is good because it prepares one for challenges and, also, betters performance. However, when the pressure becomes too much, it often leads to work related stress.  It mainly occurs as a result of factors such as a heavy workload, the environment or even tight deadlines. Work related stress often lead to illness, which makes people request for medical leave certificates even in AMS Pte ltd. It is, thus, very important for AMS Pte ltd to monitor carefully the stress levels among their employees in order to reduce workers demand for sick leaves as a result of work related issues.

Another reason why AMS Pte ltd may be facing absenteeism due to sick leaves may be job dissatisfaction. Some employees may not actually be sick but may feel that they should pretend to be as an avenue to get sick leaves in order to be absent from work. There is a relationship, which exists between job satisfaction and absenteeism. Medical leave certificates are often used as a ticket out of stressful work (Ericson,2001). Consistent inverse relationships exist between job-satisfaction and absenteeism and also request for sick leaves. Employees’ absence from work on the grounds of sick leaves have adverse effects on the organisation such as revenue loss, reduced productivity and also the indirect cost of hiring casual staff. This is very dangerous to the organisation as the indirect costs associated with absenteeism can be up to three times greater than the direct cost of absenteeism.  AMS Pte ltd  should thus ensure that the employees are satisfied with their jobs in order to avoid these severe consequences. 

Working conditions may be a major reason why workers at AMS Pte ltd request for sick leaves. Workers ‘sickness and absence is related to working conditions’ (Vahtera et al., 2000). Inadequate working conditions have been known for a long time to be a cause of ill health. Their effects have been recognised mostly by not only the workers but also the entire society through their most evident consequences, such as occupational illnesses and occupational injuries.  Sickness absence due to poor working conditions always affects a company negatively.

Conclusion

On the overall, it is therefore important that employees are comfortable working for an organisation in order to retain and also improve the performance of the whole company. Unsatisfied employees do not deliver their best to the organisation and this has a negative impact on performance.

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