Absence for reasons other than illness, how do you deal with that as a manager?

There are situations where an employee is (temporarily) unfit for work. Most people then call in sick, simply because that is the only option on offer. This is fine if there is a medical cause, but studies have shown that that is far from being the case every time. For example, the WRR (the Scientific Council for Government Policy) reported recently that half of all absences are caused by the work itself. There may also be some private problems involved, a lack of motivation or a combination of factors.

These may be worries about a divorce, meaning a person is not sleeping, is unable to concentrate and becomes very emotional. An older employee who just cannot face dealing with yet another reorganisation within the organisation. Or maybe conflict on the shop-floor, likely with you as the manager.

You can group all the causes of absenteeism under one of four headings:

• Medical
  This covers any kind of symptom due to a medical condition, like back-pain, cancer, depression or burnout. In most cases these causes are determined by a (company) doctor.
• Private life
  This heading covers people calling in sick because of circumstances in their private life, like separation or divorce, the loss of a loved one, debts, acting as a carer and having a child.
• Work
  This includes situations at work, which might include excess pressure of work, conflict with colleagues or a manager, unsuitable tasks at work or working hours.
• Motivation
  In some cases reporting sick may be triggered by a lack of motivation. This could be for any number of reasons. Too little job satisfaction, not enough challenges, or maybe just other priorities.

By identifying each time someone calls in sick which heading it falls under, you as manager can provide the right kind of support and propose the right kind of leave.

In these cases calling in sick is not the right path to take. If someone just stays at home doing nothing, it does nothing to resolve the problem. Experience shows that this is not doing anyone any good. Worse: they may actually develop symptoms of an illness as a result, which were not present before they called in sick. The impact of this on the fitness for work of the employee concerned, or the effectiveness of your team, is obvious. But what can you as a manager do in this case?

Once someone has reported sick, you as the manager are really too late. At that point, all you can legally do is ask some questions, and the ball is in the company doctor's court when it comes to follow-up. It can often take a number of weeks before a person is called in for the initial appointment. Valuable time, in which someone who receives the right support could actually get back to work. Even if only part-time. You therefore want to make sure that people ask for help at an earlier stage, so that you can look together for something that will really suit them. Because even though an employee may not be ill in the medical sense, they are still not fit for work.

What support a person needs will depend on what is happening to them. A voluntary carer who is freaking out at sitting in traffic jams can probably be helped by changing their hours of work. Someone in the thick of a divorce can probably get back on their feet with a time-out until the key issues are sorted. And someone with debts will be better helped by professional debt advice. The best way of finding out what would really help someone is to ask them. Most people do know exactly what the answer is, and by giving people back control you usually make an intervention even more effective. The next step is to see what is possible within the organisation. It is useful to talk to the HR department about this, but also to professionals like the company doctor, nurse practitioner company doctor, or a leadership & fitness for work advisor.