Mental ill-health and the differential effect of employee type on absenteeism and presenteeism
Michael F Hilton1, Paul A Scuffham, Judith Sheridan
1School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia. michael_hilton@qcmhr.uq.edu.au
Objective:
Mental ill-health results in substantial reductions in employee productivity (absenteeism and presenteeism). This paper examines the relationship between employee psychological distress, employee type and productivity.
Method:
Utilizing the Health and Performance at Work Questionnaire, in a sample of 60,556 full-time employees, the impact that psychological distress (Kessler 6) imposes on employee productivity by occupation type is examined.
Results:
Comparison of white-collar workers absenteeism rates by low and high psychological distress reveals no statistically significant difference. Nevertheless, the same comparison for blue-collar workers reveals that high psychological distress results in an 18% increase in absenteeism rates. High K6 score resulted in a presenteeism increase of 6% in both blue and white-collar employees.
Conclusion:
The novel finding is that mental ill-health produces little to no absenteeism in white-collar workers yet a profound absenteeism increase in the blue-collar sector.
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