Presenteeism

The Age Blogs: Management Line: "The name for it these days is 'presenteeism'. Usually comes with excuses like 'I feel guilty', 'There's too much work to do' and 'I save my sick time for family emergencies, like when my kids are sick'."
Yes, in the US, in Australia and in Britain we are all suffering from presenteeism. We can't stay away unless it's a real emergency. We do go to work when we stay home. One lady has been coming with a burst blood vessel in her eye because it's too hard to get to the doctor...in the end we nagged her but covering the work is hard. We are all understaffed and our work becomes harder if we stay away. We have been to work with the dreaded cold and it's just spread like wild fire so we are all struggling. I had to go because I had taken time off for a family member who ended up in hospital suddenly. I needed to take the time to get her to a doctor to get her to the specialist to get her n for an operation. It all takes time. Managing a sick and incapacitated family memeber just blows it all out. People come to work and then suddenly there are some serious health blow outs which might have been avoided. In the end, we manage remarkably well, but older ones are fed up with it and are retiring or taking extended leave. They have had enough. Their level of missing expertise is very noticeable.