Reduction in Sickness Levels during the Pandemic

Thanks Keith

Thanks Alys

Before lockdown hygiene was pretty poor. People sneezed and coughed openly in public and especially on crowded public transport facilities, no hankies, no effort to prevent the spread of germs. People did not wash their hands regularly, and sanitizing was something that they did in hospitals.

Since lockdown we have seen the complete reverse of the above. I look forward to a germ free and healthy winter.

I also work for a LA and we've had a significant drop. As most of our employees work from home, we are aware that if they feel a bit under the weather, they may still work whereas before when they would have worked in an office, they would have taken the day off as sick.

There has been a significant reduction of sickness in our key worker employees as well and I think it's because they all banded together, plus they had a lot of public support so felt appreciated in their roles.

Homeworkers have been able to adjust their hours to fit around their other commitments and everyone has accepted that someone may not be available between the 9 to 5 traditional hours.

However, I expect an increase if and when everyone returns to the office. The services have been able to run remotely so I'm sure that they'll be some resentment if there is an expectation that everyone returns to a 9 to 5 office role.

We've all been prioritising our health and trying not to catch germs? Also not travelling by public transport has made a huge difference to me personally. Getting more sleep too as not having to get up at crack of dawn for commuting... (am wfh.)

With minor illness the commute and a whole day away from home comforts can be daunting. we have a huge culture of academic staff working from home when feeling that type of illness. now that non-academic staff are being asked to work from home, this will have extended to them. Speaking as an admin person I've found it easier to self care at home, i'm not sure i'd feel OK using a hot water bottle in the workplace, that and access to my own bathroom have been the comforts. I've been working longer, lonelier hours and a lonelier lifestyle and my mental health is feeling the strain. The sick we have experienced reported has been mostly covid related and severe stress due to the huge amount of change and new work creating burnout in some despite good morale. The main sickness driver is a new term of students followed by little annual leave taken in the first term so just before Christmas it all peaks. It remains to be seen if Fresher's flu and burnout that seem to affect us are real as new patterns emerge. We have no culture of 'recreational sick,' other negative behaviours instead to avoid early starts or tasks not desired show up, also short notice leave where possible is agreed.

Hello Peter,
Very much the same story. We have about 75 members of staff across four locations. We've had only one sickness absence since the lockdown in March which was a serious medical issue. The usual coughs, colds, stomach bugs etc. just haven't featured. I think the reasons include: lack of exposure to each other - so lack of illness, not having to get up, smarten up and commute if you do feel ropey and, as our surveys have shown, many have really enjoyed working at home and are very keen to prove how effectively they can work in that way. There has certainly been a sense of team community too with managers probably making more pronounced efforts to check in with staff remotely. I do wonder if the perhaps slower pace of life for some has led to them being less run down. That said, from personal experience with home schooling and a heck of lot of changing guidance to cope with in the early part of lock down - I found it a period of intense working, tense home situations and exhausting! Simply didn't have time to be off :-).
I think many of our staff are overall very happy to be able to work at home and know we've put a lot of effort into making the return to workplace safe for them (on a Team A/B pod basis). I'm interested to see how sickness absence does or does not increase with that return.
Helen

I was looking at this last week as well, very little absence, although we don't have much anyway as a lot of our staff will just work at home if they have a sniffle etc. My first thought was that we aren't spreading our germs about both in the office and socially so there is just less illness about. I'd be interested in what trends other organisations have seen.

another reason has been our "usual suspects " for poor attendance have been the ones isolating due to being vulnerable. this has reduced the number of sporadic days by these people. a cynical way of looking at it, but it has been the case.

This piece doesn't actually mention workplace (non)absence... but confirms what we have been discussing on this thread.

Lockdown reduces cases of flu, colds and bronchitis in England