There’s more to calling in sick than just being sick.
Sometimes people take a day off because of family issues, personal needs and stress.
Others just need a day away from the office.
One research group shows that 78 per cent of employees who call in sick really aren’t ill.
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
TeleworkResearchNetwork.com compiled results of more than 500 studies along with interviews with telecommuters, non-telecommuters, researchers, venture capitalists, Fortune 500 executives, virtual workers and home-based workers in a variety of professions.
Unscheduled absences, including sick days, cost employers $1,800 per employer per year, according to the statistics. That adds up to $300 billion per year for U.S. companies.
But, according to TeleworkResearchNetwork.com, telecommuting programs reduce those unscheduled absences by 63 per cent.
It isn’t that we don’t get ill.
We do.
We do, however, tend to keep working when we’re sick. As a remote worker, I’m still able to put in a few hours on the days I’m not feeling up to snuff.
Rough morning?
How many times have you awakened in the morning feeling awful only to start improving as the day goes on? Once the icky feelings start to pass, it isn’t a problem to fire up the laptop and start attacking the work duties.
In-office employees, on the other hand, tend to take the entire day off, seeing no point in making the commute for half a day.
And that is one of the key benefits of having a telecommuting program. Many companies have experienced an increase in productivity when they allow employees to work from home.
An OnlineMBA.com video production cites a Stanford University study that shows call centre employees are 13 per cent more productive when they worked at home.
Another University of Texas Austin research project, the video says, shows telecommuters work an average of five to seven hours more per week than office workers.
At OnConference, we like statistics, we value the ability to work from home and we keep the lines of communication open with each other to further increase our productivity, whether it’s by email, conference call or web conference.
Even on those days when we aren’t feeling so great.
We probably just won’t use the webcam on our web conferences.
