Occupational Medicine 2006 56(4):279-281; doi:10.1093/occmed/kql031
© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Job satisfaction and short-term sickness absence among Dutch workers
Annette Notenbomer1,
Corné A. M. Roelen1 and
Johan W. Groothoff2
1 ArboNed NV, PO Box 132, 8900 AC Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
2 Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Correspondence to: Corné A. M. Roelen, ArboNed NV, PO Box 132, 8900 AC Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 58 2339233; fax: +31 58 2131823; e-mail: corne.roelen{at}arboned.nl
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Abstract
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Background Sickness absence is a considerable economic and social
problem. Short-term sickness absence is known to be associated
with behavioural attitudes. The correlation between sickness
absence and job satisfaction has been studied infrequently and
with contradictory results.
Aims This study investigated the correlation between short-term sickness absence and both global and specific job satisfaction. We defined short-term sickness absence as spells of up to 42 days.
Methods A random sample of 898 Dutch workers from a variety of economic sectors and companies received a self-report questionnaire on their first day of sick leave. The questionnaire measured global and specific job satisfaction. In our regression analysis, we controlled for the confounding factors of age, gender, educational level, perceived workload, job autonomy and decision latitude. The duration of an absence spell was defined as the amount of calendar days between sick leave and return to work.
Results Global job satisfaction did not correlate significantly with the duration of short-term sickness absence. While increasing physical job demands predicted longer absence, increasing job autonomy and educational level predicted shorter absence. Satisfaction with colleagues predicted longer duration absence.
Conclusion Global job satisfaction did not correlate with the duration of short-term absence spells, but specific satisfaction with colleagues was associated with longer sickness spells.
Keywords Global job satisfaction; short-term sickness absence; specific job satisfaction
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Introduction
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Sickness absence has medical and behavioural aspects. Hackett
and Guion [
1] assessed the behavioural attitudes of sickness
absence and recommended that the perceptions of workers should
be taken into account when investigating sickness absence. The
perception of workers is reflected in job satisfaction. There
is considerable research on job satisfaction, but only a few
studies have investigated its correlation with sickness absence.
Some studies conclude that dissatisfaction prolongs sickness
absence while others report that job satisfaction is not related
to the duration of absence. This study examined the correlation
between short-term sickness absence and both global and specific
job satisfaction. Based on our experience, we hypothesized that
low satisfaction is associated with relatively longer absence
spells within the first 6 weeks of sick leave.
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Method
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To test this hypothesis, we sent a valid and reliable self-report
questionnaire to 898 workers on their first day of sick leave.
The workers were drawn randomly from a total population of 1908
people who were absent due to sickness in the period January
to April of 2003. The questionnaire collected information on
global and specific job satisfaction using single-item measures
[
2,
3] on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (i.e. very
dissatisfied) to 7 (i.e. very satisfied). Self-reported physical
and psychological workload, job autonomy and decision latitude
were also investigated using a seven-point Likert scale. Data
on sickness absence were retrieved from the occupational health
register. Duration of sickness absence was defined as the amount
of calendar days from the first day of registered sick leave
to the day of return to work. Partial days off of work were
regarded as full sick days. Workers who were registered sick
for longer than 6 weeks were excluded from this study, since
sickness absence over 42 days is known to be driven by medical
rather than behavioural factors [
4]. According to national Dutch
law, approval from a medical ethics review board was not required.
Data were analysed using SPSS for Windows. The distribution of the duration of sickness absence was skewed to the right and normal distribution was approximated after logarithmic transformation. In our regression analysis, the log-transformed duration of the absence spells was the dependent variable. We controlled for the confounding factors of age, gender, educational level, perceived workload, job autonomy and decision latitude. All these variables were checked for co-linearity which was found to be absent.
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Results
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Of the 898 questionnaires handed out, 518 (58%) were returned.
We expected the selection bias caused by the relatively low
response to be small, because sickness absence duration among
non-responders was similar to that of the responders: the mean
duration of absence spells was 10.9 ± 14.4 days among
responders (
n = 518) and 9.3 ± 16.3 days among non-responders
(
n = 380). Seventy questionnaires were excluded: 49 workers
were on sick leave for longer than 6 weeks, nine workers were
not sick but on pregnancy leave, six questionnaires were not
filled out completely and six questionnaires were returned anonymously.
A total of 448 questionnaires were suitable for statistical analysis. Table 1 shows the scores of global satisfaction, (physical and psychological) job demands, job autonomy and decision latitude as well as their associations with sickness duration.
View this table:
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Table 1. Scores of global satisfaction, age, educational level and work factors and their correlation with sickness absence duration
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Global job satisfaction was not correlated with the duration
of short-term absence spells (correlation coefficient ß
= –0.010 with
P = 0.84). The correlation between satisfaction
on specific parameters of work and the duration of short-term
absence is shown in
Table 2.
Satisfaction with colleagues correlated positively (correlation
coefficient ß = 0.125 with
P = 0.03) with sickness
absence duration, i.e. workers who were more satisfied with
their colleagues were absent longer.
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Discussion
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Our study found that increasing satisfaction with colleagues
and physical demands at work predicted longer duration of absence
whereas increasing educational level and job autonomy predicted
shorter duration. Unexpectedly, global job satisfaction was
not correlated with the duration of short-term absence spells.
The reason for this may be that the questionnaires were not
anonymous, leading to socially desirable answers which could
have underestimated the results. Nevertheless, a correlation
between global satisfaction and sickness absence duration remains
unlikely because of the low correlation coefficient. Besides,
the findings regarding educational level, job autonomy and physical
job demands correspond with literature findings, and suggest
that socially desirable answers did not play a major role. Therefore,
we rejected our hypothesis that low job satisfaction is associated
with longer short-term absence spells.
High satisfaction with colleagues predicted longer duration of short-term sickness absence. Probably, workers who are very satisfied with their colleagues find it harder to report themselves sick, and go to work despite feeling ill (sickness presenteeism). As a result, they would only report themselves sick with severe illness or symptoms, which explains why they are absent longer. Aronsson et al. [5] reported that sickness presenteeism was supported by low-level sick pay. They also described that members of occupational groups in which replacement is difficult have an increased risk of being at work when sick. In addition to these factors, high satisfaction with colleagues seems to contribute to sickness presenteeism. Alternatively, it is possible that high levels of co-worker support may encourage people to stay at home longer when they are ill, as was suggested by Rael et al. [6] from the Whitehall II study.
Satisfaction with colleagues correlates with short-term sickness absence duration, but satisfaction with the supervisor is not associated with it. This suggests that the relation with colleagues is more important for the return to work than the relation with the supervisor, as far as short-term absence is concerned. Nieuwenhuijsen et al. [7] reported that supervisory behaviour is an important predictor of return to work. We assume that supervisory behaviour has more influence on long-term sickness absence. However, further research is necessary to study the correlation between job satisfaction and long absence spells.
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Key points
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- Global job satisfaction does not correlate with the duration of short-term sickness absence.
- Satisfaction with colleagues is positively associated with short-term sickness absence, whereas satisfaction with the supervisor is not associated with its duration.
- Sickness presenteeism and confiding co-worker's support are discussed as possible causal mechanisms behind the finding that high satisfaction with colleagues is associated with longer sick spells.
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Conflicts of interest
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None declared.
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References
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- Aronsson G, Gustafsson K, Dallner M. Sick but yet at work. An empirical study of sickness presenteeism. J Epidemiol Community Health 2000;54:502–509.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Rael EG, Stansfeld SA, Shipley M, Head J, Feeney A, Marmot M. Sickness absence in the Whitehall II study, London: the role of social support and material problems. J Epidemiol Community Health 1995;49:474–481.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
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Abstract
Introduction