“For many workers, a real illness is the same as a real holiday,” says Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, reflecting on how the combination of Covid-19 and regular home working has led to new uncertainty about the rules governing when and how we should do our work.
“We live in a new age of ambiguity: Are you well enough to work? Are you sick enough to take time off? Who decides that?”
With the Covid-19 pandemic raging this summer, many employees are asking themselves these questions for the first time in many months. And managers are also confused about when and how their employees should work while juggling sick leave, vacation and family obligations.
In particular, the increasing number of people working from home has meant that rules can be opaque for employees experiencing the symptoms of suspected Covid cases and other colds. Often these are so mild that employees are not fully aware of their symptoms, a situation exacerbated by a lack of testing. Few workplaces currently mandate testing for suspected Covid cases.
Human resources professionals worry that it is not clear when a person is sick enough to take time off, even though much office work can be done just as well from home, close to the bed.
The manager of a large financial services company describes the feeling many face as “morbid”: feeling bad enough to avoid dragging yourself into the office, but not sick enough to turn off the computer and stay in bed.
The problem, she says, is that those who do end up working — likely in ways they would have avoided before telecommuting became so widespread — often take longer to get better or are at risk of their condition getting worse.
The CIPD, the professional body for human resources and development, surveyed more than 5,000 employees last year and found that more than half of employees continued to do their work despite feeling unwell. The pressure to do so, it found, came from the employees themselves rather than from their boss.
Amanda Arrowsmith, HR and Transformation Director at the CIPD, says that with uncertainty about whether people can take time off, there is now a risk that people will “stay off sick for longer”.
The problem is not necessarily with management, who may not even see or know what their employees are doing or feeling when they regularly work from home.
“When working from home, the boundaries of illness become blurred, just like working hours,” says Francke of the CMI. The focus, she adds, is now often on the needs of an organization rather than the employee. “Many workplaces have policies in place to prevent the spread of illness to others: it’s not about the well-being of the person.”
Covid cases have risen sharply in the UK this summer. At the end of June, the number of people in hospital with Covid was about double what it was in April. While these figures are no longer an accurate estimate of infections as fewer people are being tested or developing severe symptoms, companies are seeing rising numbers of cases among their staff as people celebrate the Euros and attend summer fetes and music festivals.
And it’s not just about Covid. Along with other colds and sore throats, cases of whooping cough, which can last for many weeks, are also on the rise this year.
The UK’s workplace health and safety regulator, the Health and Safety Executive, says workers who have Covid-19 should try to stay at home. However, companies no longer have to consider the issue in their risk assessment or take special measures. Whether there should be a new etiquette around Covid, as opposed to a more traditional cold or flu, is still uncertain for many.
For employees, according to the Acas Employment Disputes Service, if someone has been off sick because of Covid and is ready to return to work, “they should speak to their employer as soon as possible”, but “currently there is no statutory length of time that someone with Covid must be away from work”.
It is up to the employer to decide how to record absences when it is not safe for an employee to return to work, Acas adds, including when an employee has tested positive but is not ill. In such cases, it says, “it is unlikely to be a sickness-related absence”.
The problem is that diseases like Covid affect people differently – from barely noticeable symptoms to complete bed rest – which can make counseling difficult, according to HR managers.
“During (the pandemic) there were clear guidelines. Now people are wondering what to do,” Arrowsmith says.
The CIPD survey found the highest sickness absence rate in a decade – around 7.8 days per employee per year – due to the impact of Covid on the UK workforce.
But Arrowsmith points to another worrying statistic: the CIPD has found that “presenteeism” is widespread, with around three-quarters of respondents to a survey last year saying they were aware of people coming to work despite being ill in the past 12 months.
Almost two-thirds of respondents also reported a form of “leaveism”, whereby employees use their allocated free time, such as their annual leave, to do their work despite feeling unwell, rather than registering these days as sick leave.
Sally Wilson, senior research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies, says many workplaces are still trying to find the “new normal” in terms of how workers should manage illness and when they should feel fit to work.
But she says that working from home has also had its advantages. Some employees appreciate the flexibility of being able to work as many hours as they want and not feel pressured to go to the office.
“People often feel worse in the mornings, for example, so flexible working hours can be really helpful,” says Wilson.
Arrowsmith, of the CIPD, agrees there are benefits for those who can work from home if they have minor ailments or illnesses that are best treated at home. “For some people it works: they don’t have to struggle with the tube or the car, but feel like they can still work.”
For HR and management professionals, the key to navigating the new rules on working while sick is communication: managers know their staff well enough to know when something is wrong whether they are in the office or not, and employees can rely on their bosses for support and understanding. Employees tend not to discuss their health issues with their boss or employer, the CIPD has found.
Arrowsmith says: “Good line management means recognising when someone is sick and ensuring good communication so that people feel they can take time off when they need to.”
Francke adds: “Managers need to create an environment where employees are treated with respect and do what they need to stay healthy and productive. There are all kinds of grey areas at work these days, so we need to be flexible on both sides.”
