Meet the Usual Suspects – Sleeps-with-Smartphone

In the second of our series welcoming you to the Usual Suspects of absence management, we are introducing you to Sleeps-with-Smartphone.

Sick, yet unable to relax, Sleeps-with-Smartphone is at home in bed but nothing will stop her answering her emails. The flu is making her drowsy and prone to mistakes but the way she sees it is simple: ‘I must show my dedication to the job!’ Whilst she dozes off in the afternoon, she misses an important call and when she picks up her phone again, she starts replying to messages that have already been dealt with in the meantime by her co-workers in the office. She thinks she is doing everyone a favour but she really isn’t helping at all. She leaves clients confused and will never let herself relax.

Most of us are guilty of this behaviour sometimes but if an employee is constantly insistent on not relaxing, it can have longer term consequences for their health. To name one, stress can morph into exhaustion and exhaustion is damaging to your body in many different ways making it much more difficult for your body to heal itself.

Sleeps-with-Smartphone is always in bed as her body simply cannot recuperate whilst under so much pressure. Her absences are becoming longer and eventually the time off starts to build up, despite e-mails being sent from home.

By using an online absence and attendance management system such an Engage, you can set absence triggers alerting you of a build-up of absences and even set special triggers for the more acute illnesses such as stress or depression. These acute triggers will ensure that Occupational Health can be alerted if an illness becomes recurring or long term. On the other side of the coin, Engage also monitors both unplanned and planned absence, i.e. sickness and annual leave. This way you are easily able to track whether an employee is off too often and similarly, if they have not taken any annual leave or had any time off at all.

Even if they are not ill, it’s important for their wellbeing for employees to know it is OK to take time off. No-one’s world should revolve around their work and a good work/life balance is key to engaged and happy employees.

If you would like to give Engage a try to see how much it could lighten your HR workload and banish the Sleeps-with-Smartphone effect on your employees, we are offering a free 30 day, no obligations trial right here.