Sickness courtesy of slightly everything

The Alberta government  has recently announced that all Alberta government employees who have been absent due to sickness for more than three consecutive days will now be required to swear an oath declaring they were sick in front of a commissioner of oaths (read the Edmonton Journal article here) . This is in lieu of the previous policy, which required employees to obtain a doctor’s note, and in response to Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer asking employers to relax the rules due to the current H1N1 pandemic. Speaking to this, government spokesman Gerald Kastendieck was quoted as saying, “the idea is not that your supervisor doesn’t believe you or anything like that”. Of note is the fact that Kastendieck did not follow this up by stating what the idea IS about. Organizations have the option of choosing how to respond to the request by the CMO – the University of Alberta has waved requirements altogether, choosing to go by the honour system with their employees. Same goes for the Workers’ Compensation Board.

Regardless of the policy  – doctor’s notes or sworn oaths – requiring your employees to show or declare proof of their sickness implies you do not trust them. Many recently released articles and publications (including this one here) have demonstrated the association between trust-building practices in an organization and increased productivity, wellbeing, and organizational commitment. In addition, no research has been done to suggest unjustified employee absenteeism is a problem in Alberta (or any other Canadian province, for that matter), or on whether requiring employees to take an oath would even reduce such behaviour if it did exist.

Instead of making employees who call in sick take an oath, time might be better spent assessing that employees place within the organization, or the organization itself

Really, at the end of the day – if you think that your employee is taking advantage of the current pandemic and calling in sick when they’re not, perhaps you should be spending more time assessing this employees place within the organization, and less time hunting down a commissioner of oaths. Better yet, why not re-examine the organizational culture – are there factors within the organization that may be leading employees to take unjustified sick days? Could chronic workplace stress be playing a role? Is this particular employee not satisfied in their current position? Overworked? Is there a familial or personal crisis that does not fall under the ‘illness’ definition that is forcing the employee to lie?

At the end of the day, all organizations need to choose the type of culture their employees will work within. The organizations that chooses to recognize both the factors that drive today’s employees – a sense of purpose, empowerment, opportunity to grow – as well as be supportive and trusting – will draw and retain more productive, happy, and committed employees.