Absenteeism Lousy mood in the company a health hazard

Bad mood in the company: Dissatisfied workers are often ill
Workers who are dissatisfied with supervisors and wages endanger their health. According to a recent survey, one out of four who misjudge the corporate culture at their workplace is also unhappy with their health.

Bad corporate culture endangers health
In recent years, more and more absenteeism due to mental illness has been recorded in Germany. According to several health insurance bosses, employers are often responsible for burnout and stress. That a bad corporate culture endangers the health, now also shows the current absences report of the Scientific Institute of the AOK (WIdO).

The current absences report of the Scientific Institute of the AOK (WIdO) shows that dissatisfied workers are more often ill. (Image: Thomas Siepmann / fotolia.com)

Current Absentee Report
A bad corporate culture is associated with a significantly higher health risk for employees, the AOK reported in a press release. This is the result of a survey among around 2,000 employees in the Absenteeism Report 2016 of the Scientific Institute of the AOK (WIdO).

According to the information, one in four, who rated his corporate culture as bad, also dissatisfied with their own health. Among the respondents who see their company as positive, it was only one in ten.

Helmut Schröder, Deputy Managing Director of WIdO and co-editor of the report said: "There is a clear correlation between the way employees work and their health. Every company, regardless of industry, should use this knowledge. "

Job satisfaction and health care
For the first time in 2016, the WIdO investigated the question of the influence of corporate culture on the health of its employees with the nationwide representative survey in the Absenteeism Report 2016. "The corporate culture plays an important role in employee retention, performance, customer and quality orientation and can have a positive as well as negative impact on the health of employees," the institute writes on its website.

"A well-experienced corporate culture is credited with having a significant impact on work satisfaction and health, and ultimately on the company's success," he continues.

Loyalty of the employer is important to employees
In February 2016, a representative survey of a total of 2,007 workers between the ages of 16 and 65, covering corporate culture in its various facets, including leadership style, employee orientation, and pay equity, was reported by the AOK.

It was shown that employees are above all the loyalty of the employer (78 percent) and the aspect of praise (69 percent) in everyday work important. These and other features make for a good and healthy corporate culture. However, only 55 percent of employees actually experience that the employer is behind them, as well as only half of the employees are praised for good work.

Physical and mental complaints
In addition, employees who perceived their corporate culture as being bad reported more frequently about physical and mental health problems associated with their work. According to this, a poorly rated corporate culture is associated with health dissatisfaction in 27.5 percent of the respondents. This proportion is thus three times higher than in the peer group, which perceives its corporate culture positively (8.9 percent).

In addition, a bad corporate culture reports more than twice as often physical disabilities related to work activity (66.6 percent versus 32 percent for a good corporate culture). Conditions are the same for mental health problems (65.1 percent versus 35.8 percent for a good corporate culture).

Employees were on average around 20 days ill
However, there are also differences in how employees deal with their illnesses. For example, in the case of a badly valued corporate culture, almost one in three (31 percent) lacked more than two weeks of service last year. In the comparison group with a positive corporate culture, this was only slightly more than one in six (16.9 percent).

Ultimately, corporate culture has an impact on how many times, contrary to the medical advice, it is decided to go to work sick: while only 11.8 percent of those employees who are positive about their corporate culture are positive, those working in companies with a poor corporate culture are more likely to do so a risky behavior (16.7 percent).

As the report goes on, a total of slightly more AOK insured were absent at work in 2014 than in 2014, with the sick leave rising from 5.2 to 5.3 percent. On average, every employee with a certificate stayed at home for 19.5 days. Respiratory diseases were responsible for the increase, according to the health insurance company. But the missing days due to mental illness also increased accordingly. (Ad)