The term ‘leaveism’ is a new and trending term that refers to people using allocated time off such as annual leave holidays to catch up on work. ‘Leaveism’ is also used when employees work when they are unwell or take work home outside of normal working hours. This concept is becoming an increasing concern for employers over the last year as the CIPD Health and Wellbeing Report 2018 showed that 69% of businesses are experiencing ‘leaveism’ but only 27% of these organisations have since taken steps to decrease this concern*.
It is the duty of the employer to ensure that all employees take their allotted annual leave and that employees are not pressured to work outside of their normal working day. If employees experience unrealistic demands at work this could impact upon their wellbeing and lead to long-term sickness absence. An employer needs to communicate regularly with employees to ensure this is not the case and that all employees have a healthy work-life balance.
Another finding from the report shows that organisations who are more focused on encouraging wellbeing are less likely to experience ‘leaveism’*. Where they have an effective wellbeing strategy, which is clearly communicated to employees and on the agenda of all senior leaders.
The most common indicators of employees suffering from ‘leaveism’ include:
- Employees working late at night
- Employees constantly checking and replying to emails outside of working hours
- Employees who are reluctant to take annual leave or cancel annual leave at the last minute
- Employees who cannot leave their work for others to do when on annual leave
- Employees who fail to meet deadlines due to putting too much pressure on themselves
The most common steps taken to decrease ‘leavesim’ reported by the CIPD*:
- Better guidance for all employees
- Investigating its potential causes, for example workloads
- Training/guidance for line managers to spot warning signs
- Fostering a culture based more on outputs than inputs
- Reviewing the use of digital technology and the ability of employees to ‘switch off’ when not working
- Reviewing health and wellbeing policies
- Updating the organisation’s attendance policies
FusionHR offers templates to support you in managing your employee welfare and attendance, including model policies, letters, risk assessments and questionnaires. If you need any help, please get in touch with one of the team on 01924 827869.
Alternatively, our sister company Staff Absence Management (SAM) can help you to manage absence and identify ‘leaveism’ by creating cases. In each case, you can add Fit Notes, Occupational Health Reports and Return to Work documents, all encouraging communication with your employees. SAM also reminds you when meetings are due and maintains evidence to show a fair process has been followed. If you don’t currently benefit from SAM, get in touch with the team on 01924 907319 to arrange a demo.
Reference:*
https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-being/health-well-being-work
