Are stalwart employees who insist on coming to work sick actually doing their company a disservice? An email survey of 753 salaried people shows that 96.8 percent of respondents had gone to work sick. Their reasons for doing so included a desire to fulfill their responsibility (46.9 percent), inability to afford leave because of too much work (25.9 percent), or a lack of substitute workers to fill their place ( 23.5 percent). Only 3.7 percent of respondents went to work sick out of concern that they might be laid off. The survey was conducted by job portal site Job Korea.
That dedication to the job may not be such a good thing. Citing a study by U.S. human resources information service CCH, Reuters last month reported that the phenomenon of "presenteeism", in which sick employees show up for work, actually costs employers US$180 billion a year in the U.S. alone. According to the study, sick workers can get worse or pass along contagions to other workers and in doing so lower the overall productivity of the workplace.
VOCABULARY STALWART (adj)- physically strong DISSERVICE (n) - an action which harms something or someone CONTAGION (n) - when a disease is spread by touching someone or something
QUESTIONS
1. Do you come to work when you are sick? Why or Why not?
2. What reasons would make you stay home instead?
3. According to the article, a worker is actually less productive when he comes to work sick. Do you agree? Based on your own experience, do you feel less productive when you are sick?
4. In the Korean work culture, is it considered a good practice to show up for work even when you are not feeling well? Why?
5. What do you think is the long term effect of this practice to the employee? to the company? Why?