Younger workers take more fake sick days

January 2, 2015
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A new, Australia-based survey has found that younger workers are more likely to fake a sick day, or at least admit to it, than older workers.

According to the survey from the University of Melbourne, 39 percent of workers between the ages of 18 and 24 and 43 percent of those between 25 and 34 admitted to calling in to work to take a sick day in the past 12 months.

The researchers said older workers, who tended to be in managerial positions, were much less likely to take a fake sick day off.

“The people less likely to fake a sick day were workers over 45 years old or in executive and senior management positions,” said Peter Gahan, director of Centre for Workplace Leadership at the University of Melbourne. “These more senior employees were also more likely to look forward to returning to work after their weekend.”

The survey also reported that full-time workers were more likely to say they had faked a sick day than part-time workers. Full-time workers also were more likely to say they dreaded coming in on Mondays.

“The results show that if you take a sickie, you’re less likely to look forward to going to work on a Monday,” Gahan said. “This may imply that people who take ‘mental health days’ do so because they feel disgruntled at work, and that those who work part-time are more enthusiastic about returning to work.”

Additionally, only 19 percent of Aussies in management said they dreaded Mondays, compared to 42 percent of all employed surveyed.

“There are also warning bells for middle managers,” Gahan added. “Thirty-six percent of middle managers admit to faking a sick day in the past twelve months and forty-seven percent believe that their counterparts are being paid more than they are.”

The University of Melbourne team said they plan to follow up with a similar poll focusing on small and medium businesses.

A different study published in November found that men and women in managerial positions react differently to their elevated role. The study, from the University of Texas at Austin, found that female managers were more likely to experience increasing symptoms of depression, while their male counterparts were more likely to experience decreasing levels of depressive symptoms.

The researchers noted that they considered many factors associated with taking on a management role, such as the number of hours worked and schedule flexibility.

“What’s striking is that women with job authority in our study are advantaged in terms of most characteristics that are strong predictors of positive mental health,” said study author Tetyana Pudrovska, an assistant professor in sociology at the university. “These women have more education, higher incomes, more prestigious occupations, and higher levels of job satisfaction and autonomy than women without job authority. Yet, they have worse mental health than lower-status women.”

“Women in authority positions are viewed as lacking the assertiveness and confidence of strong leaders,” she added. “But when these women display such characteristics, they are judged negatively for being unfeminine. This contributes to chronic stress.”

Source:redOrbit

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