Office martyrdom rife as employees prioritise work over well-being

Research commissioned by Citrix has revealed office workers that ‘soldier on’ despite illness are doing the business (and their colleagues) more harm than good, leading to a call to make working from home easier.

Nearly half of UK office workers (46%), and 56% of senior business decision makers surveyed think ‘office martyrs’ are the most to blame for the spread of illness within the workplace, with nearly two thirds of businesses believing that having sick employees in the office damages business productivity.

When it came to dealing with office martyrs, the vast majority (71%) of senior business decision makers agreed that if staff had to work when ill, they would rather they did so from home. However, over one in five admitted their organisation did not have a home working policy – meaning employees are expected to work in the office unless they are ill.

Similarly, while 45% of office workers said they would choose to work remotely to avoid falling victim to an illness going round the office, only 17% of business decision makers surveyed said their organisations had a policy which allowed employees to work from home whenever needed.

"Workplaces can be a hub for germs to harbour and spread," said James Stevenson, area vice president of Northern Europe at Citrix. "The cost of office martyrdom is a very real threat to business productivity – especially during peak flu season.

"Providing employees with the tools and flexibility to work from home can help minimise the impact of illness in the office, and maintain high levels of productivity throughout. This not only means enabling ill employees with the flexibility to log on from home if they want to, but also giving their colleagues the flexibility to avoid illness spreading through the office."

Policies allowing employees to work from home differed in terms of scope and parameter across the respondent pool. For example, 20% said they had a working from home policy that differed depending on the employees’ position in the company.

The research, conducted by YouGov, also revealed the effect that flexible working policies had on employee’s attitudes towards sickness.

56% of office workers agreed they would care more about their own well-being if they had the freedom to work flexibly during peaks of office sickness and 59% of office workers agreed ill colleagues can still be productive working from home.