The Daily Telegraph reported on the 19th July that the recession is forcing alomost one million people to work part-time because full-time positions are becoming more scarce, in addition to companies such as BT, BA, and KPMG offering job protection in return for fewer working hours or less pay.
At a time when job security is at its lowest and few people want to be in the front of the queue for redundancy, how many of those people will want to take time off sick with swine flu for fear of possible repurcussions? What organisations could find is that sick employees will be forcing themselves into the office in order to show that both they and their jobs are indispensable. Such behaviour will lead to a longer and more impacting flu pandemic and, as sky news also reports, could lead to the recession lasting a couple of years longer than expected and a decrease in UK GDP of around -7.5 per cent.
Additionally if businesses cannot fulfil their contractual obligations becasue their employees are off sick, they may find legal action taken against them from customers and suppliers. How many companies can afford such liability in the current climate?
I would suggest that managers overtly show that presenteeism is not a key criteria for discerning between those who should be protected from redundancy, and those that shouldn’t, and I belive that offering to let employees work from home communicates that they are trusted, appreciated, and that they feel needed by the organisation through these difficulat economic times.
Author: Karen Jones
Tags: home working, pandemic flu guidelines for business, recession, swine flu
