Mental ill-health and the differential effect of employee type on absenteeism and presenteeism.

Abstract

Mental ill-health results in substantial reductions in employee productivity (absenteeism and presenteeism). This paper examines the relationship between employee psychological distress, employee type and productivity. Utilizing the Health and Performance at Work Questionnaire, in a sample of 60,556 full-time employees, the impact that psychological distress (Kessler 6) imposes on employee productivity by occupation type is examined. Comparison of white-collar workers absenteeism rates by low and high psychological distress reveals no statistically significant difference. Nevertheless, the same comparison for blue-collar workers reveals that high psychological distress results in an 18% increase in absenteeism rates. High K6 score resulted in a presenteeism increase of 6% in both blue and white-collar employees. The novel finding is that mental ill-health produces little to no absenteeism in white-collar workers yet a profound absenteeism increase in the blue-collar sector.