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Do your employees use their allocated annual leave to catch up on work? Are they too scared to admit when they’re sick? You might think the answer is no, but the data around leaveism is startling. It’s clear we have a problem when an entire phenomenon is developed around a common workplace practice born out of our tendency to overwork. First, it was presenteeism – the idea that employees purposefully work overtime in a bid to impress their boss, often when they’re feeling unwell or exhausted. This worrying practice has given rise to an even more troubling trend: leaveism. Coined by Ian Hesketh, Project Support, National Health and Wellbeing Forum, and Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health, of the University of Manchester, leaveism is about employees misusing their leave. For instance, they might use accrued annual leave to go off sick, rather than admitting to needing their sick leave, or taking annual leave to catch up on work, or working on the weekends. “Leaveism is when people are worried that their boss will think they’re not coping, so they act like they are,” says Cooper, who is also the President of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
