Economy Motivates Unhappy Workers

Workplace absenteeism goes down when jobless rates go up, research has shown.

But, the drop in absences during times of higher unemployment is largely among unhappy workers, according to a study led by John Hausknecht, an assistant professor of Human Resource Studies at ILR.

Unhappy workers are more motivated to go to work when the economy signals joblessness is increasing, he said.

Unemployment rates, high or low, have the least impact on absenteeism of highly satisfied workers, according to the study.  It followed 12,500 employees of a state department of transportation from 1998 to 2003.

"The good news is, if you've got a committed and satisfied workforce, it really doesn't matter what the economy is doing. Those people tend not to be taking days off," Hausknecht said.

The study also found that absenteeism crept up at a pace of about 5 percent annually over five years.  Since each day of an employee's absence costs employers an estimated $500 a day, that uptick grew to millions of lost dollars for the organization studied.

One possible explanation for the rise in absenteeism rates is that workers tend to exaggerate other workers' absences and then use those perceptions to legitimize their own absences, Hausknecht said. He conducted the study with researchers from Florida International University and Vance & Renz, a management consulting services firm in State College, Pa.

They used employee surveys to have workers rate their job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and collected unemployment rate data from the Department of Labor. They focused on short-term absences (one to two days) since longer times away from work are often assumed to be medically based.

The study, entitled "Work Unit Absenteeism: Effects or Satisfaction, Commitment, Labor Market Conditions, and Time," was published in the December/January issue of the Academy of Management Journal.