Should people get extra days for period pain?Īdding to the period pain debate is whether menstrual leave - extra personal leave days - should be given to those that experience periods. Going to a doctor to get a certificate and advice on how to treat it might also be a great solution if you feel unsure. Some of the common symptoms associated with severe period pain, known as dysmenorrhoea, include:Īs severe period pain and its associated symptoms can certainly make you feel unwell, it’s unlikely too many workplaces would argue against it counting as sick leave. Presenteeism, in short, is a wake-up call for us to think differently about work and to explore how we might live our lives with less work.Why Australian Tampons Don’t Come With Applicators Where it makes us sick, we should reject it. But it can also consume us and make us ill. Work is and can be good, if organised in the right way. It reflects the pressure put on people to act as model workers and to identify with work as the most important activity in life. Presenteeism is a symptom of a society which allows work to dominate its citizens’ lives. It requires us to reappraise work and to value the worth of the time we have away from it. This means challenging the belief that work is the great cure-all for life’s ills and more value being placed on having a life beyond work.

There needs to be greater honesty and openness in the workplace and an acceptance that work pressures cause illnesses that require time off. They would be better to seek solutions to the causes of ill health – high workloads, low job security, and work-related stress – than managing sick workers in a functional way. But by doing so, they risk creating higher costs for themselves and their companies. Under pressure to achieve short-term results, they may be tempted to turn a blind eye to presenteeism. By taking time off work, in short, you can protect yourself against even worse health – and possibly even premature death – in the future. Working while ill leads to greater sickness. Whatever the reasons for presenteeism – negative or positive – its effects on our health are likely to be the same. In such cases, staying away from work may be a good thing, especially if it allows time for recovery and creative distraction via other, non-work activities. If devotion to work leads to long hours, including unpaid overtime, then even the most committed worker may confront problems of burnout and physical ill health. Įven among those who are devoted to their jobs, ill health may be caused by continual and uninterrupted work attendance. Stress is a big cause of work-related illness. But by fearing the consequences of staying away from work, workers may be sucked back to it, even though doing so is likely to compound their illness. Stress related to a high workload, lack of autonomy, and job insecurity may lead to illness that then requires recovery time away from work. The irony here is that attendance at work may be one of the causes of poor health. These workers wish to demonstrate passion and commitment for their jobs even when they’re feeling under the weather. Reports alleged that some workers there were “too scared” to call in sick for fear of losing their jobs, although Sports Direct has said that agency staff should not fear losing their jobs over sick days and that it aims to provide safe conditions for all.īut while some workers feel pressured to work when ill, others choose to. The role of fear in driving presenteeism was suggested in the recent case of temporary agency workers at a Derbyshire site of retailer, Sports Direct. Lack of adequate sick pay and other financial difficulties all encourage employees to work while ill. The latest research suggests that high job demands, stress and job insecurity are key to explaining involuntary presenteeism. This induces people to attend work when they shouldn’t. On the one hand, it stems from fear, the fear that staying off work, even when ill, will be interpreted as a lack of commitment.

Taking a sick day