Leaveism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leaveism (leavism)[1] is a term first coined in 2013 by Dr Ian Hesketh, a researcher at University of Manchester, to describe the phenomena of employees using flexitime, annual leave, rest days and other leave entitlement schemes to have time off when they are in fact too unwell to go to work. He later extended this to include occasions whereby employees took work home and/or on holiday that they could not complete in paid working hours. Hesketh's research, which centred on well-being in the UK police service, sought to identify a gap in current thinking around absenteeism and presenteeism;[2] of which there is a plethora of academic study and commentary. The aim of his studies was to highlight that the true extent of sickness absence may be masked by the practice of leaveism, and that there may be a hidden populace experiencing significant work overload.
Leaveism[3] is the practice of:
- employees using allocated time off such as annual leave entitlements, flexi hours banked, re-rostered rest days and so on, to take time off when they are in fact unwell;
- employees using these leave entitlements to look after dependents, including children and/or elderly relatives;
- employees taking work home that cannot be completed in normal working hours;
- employees working while not at work, on leave or holiday to catch up.
Additional research
In a later paper Hesketh et al. explored the relationship of leaveism with aspects of work-life balance, which he referred to as integration, and the extent to which the practice existed amongst senior police officers.[4] Hesketh and Cooper are currently researching the second aspect of leaveism, associated with using time off such as annual leave, flexitime and other rest day allocations to look after dependents, including both children and elderly relatives; the so-called sandwich generation.[5] The global COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this aspect as schools around the world closed down in attempts to reduce the spread of the virus. Again, the consequences of this are that employees are vulnerable to workload overload, which may, over time, have major health implications to those individuals. This may also have impacts on workplace outcomes, such as lost productivity and/or reduced performance and efficiency. This work also looks at the implications for resilience, engagement and discretionary effort which is discussed in depth in Hesketh and Cooper's book Managing Health and Wellbeing in the Public Sector.[6] Further studies explored implications for HR and other management activities.[7] During the pandemic Hesketh and Cooper garnered reflections from many different organisations on what had been the impact and learning practices from what was described as the largest forced workforce experiment of all time (lockdowns). These were recorded in their book Managing Workplace Health and Wellbeing During a Crises.[8]