Leaveism in English and Welsh police forces: baseline reference values

Leaveism is a recently coined term for alternative attendance behaviours to sickness absence and sickness presence. Initial studies suggest that leaveism might mask the true extent of sickness in organizations and represent a response to perceived job insecurity, the belief that sickness absence could harm promotion prospects, and low job gratification.

To generate baseline reference values for leaveism in English and Welsh police forces to facilitate benchmarking and risk-reduction activities.

Officers represented by the Police Federation of England and Wales contributed survey data on the incidence of three leaveism dimensions in the year to February 2016. We applied descriptive statistics to characterize leaveism and Pearson's χ2 tests to examine differences in incidence rates by socio- and occupational-demographic factors.

Annual leave or rest days were used to take time off from work due to physical health complaints by 8499/14 451 (59%) of respondents and psychological health complaints by 5983/14 326 (42%) (dimension 1). Work was taken home that could not be completed in normal working hours by 7515/14 959 (50%) of respondents (dimension 2), and 5974/14 963 (40%) reported having worked while on annual leave in order to catch up with work (dimension 3). Incidence rates on dimensions 2 and 3 differed markedly by rank, with higher ranks reporting higher rates.

These sector-wide findings suggest that leaveism is a cause for concern. Further research is required to identify sector-specific causes of leaveism with a view to informing interventions to tackle the problem.