Too sick or not too sick? The importance of stress and satisfaction with supervisor support on the prevalence of sickness presenteeism

Abstract

In a sample of 3274 full-time Belgian workers, this article found that 62% of workers went to work while being sick (sickness presenteeism) at least once over the past 12 months. Of all workers who did not show sickness presenteeism themselves, another 6 out of 10 saw or heard about sickness presenteeism in their own organization. Women were more likely to report sickness presenteeism than men and junior workers were more prone to sickness presenteeism than senior workers. Education did not explain the choice for sickness presenteeism. Satisfaction with the supervisor had a direct negative effect on sickness presenteeism. Finally, indirect effects were found between satisfaction with the supervisor and sickness presenteeism via the prevalence of stress. While previous studies showed that good supervisor support can make sick workers more productive when they show up at work, this study shows that good supervisor support makes sick workers stay at home.