Should I stay or should I go? Analysis of the effects of employer’s practices on worker’s sickness presenteeism and absenteeism

Théo DENIS - Lemma - Panthéon-Assas Université

We investigate how employer’s practices and working conditions can influence absenteeism or presenteeism when workers feel sick. Because we still find conflicting results in the literature with no consensual conclusion, we explore a new methodology to study these behaviours. We propose a count-data model with endogenous participation explaining the annual duration of both behaviours. We use copula method to jointly estimate perceived illness and either sickness absenteeism or sickness presenteeism to provide better estimates of the effects of employment characteristics on these behaviours. We use the 2016 “Working conditions and psychological risks” survey, a national survey conducted by the French ministry of labour. First, our results confirm that the estimations of the effects of the determinants would be biased without modelling properly workers’ endogenous participation. We also find that several working conditions such as tensions at firm, excessive workload and unbalanced private/professional life are the strongest determinants of illness. Regarding the studied behaviours, we find that sickness presenteeism and sickness absenteeism are two responses to illness that depend on different characteristics. While observable job characteristics principally explain sickness absenteeism, sickness presenteeism is mostly explained by working conditions and employer’s practices. For instance, variables such as being supervisor in the private sector, with a temporary contract and choice of work methods increase the duration of sickness absenteeism. While lack of time, working under pressure, taking initiative and not being supported by the hierarchy or being afraid for the future of the job only increase sickness presenteeism.

Sickness absenteeism and presenteeism are known to be costly for employers. Being aware of the levers that favour a particular behaviour is crucial in managing the workforce and reducing the costs associated to the behaviours, both from an economic and well-being point of view.

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