New research from CIPD shows that staff are taking fewer days off work. This is good news, surely? Possibly not, according to experts.

The need for staff to protect their jobs has seen a rise in what is termed “presenteeism” – or in other words staff turning up for work when they are ill – because they feel that have to.
The obvious dangers of presenteeism is that staff do not operate at their optimum levels and so do not function properly.
Illnesses are not contained and so can spread throughout the workforce – leading to a higher rate of staff sickness.
The fall in staff productivity is real cause for concern as well as the impact of sick colleagues working side by side with their healthy counterparts.
Stress is still the most cited reason for staff absence and the psychological effects of working under stress are well known.
Email overload issues continue to play a part in staff stress and while it cannot be claimed that email etiquette training has all the answers, it can provide part of a solution when introduced company-wide.