Working from home doesn’t make us invincible

We’ve all had those mornings — you wake up feeling unwell and quickly realize that your only option is to call in sick and climb back into bed. But what happens when you can work from your bed? Has working from home changed the value we place on physical recovery?

According to research, it has. The LifeWorks Mental Health Index (MHI) indicates that more than half of Canadians do their job while feeling unwell at least 1 day per week.

Even among those with paid sick leave, it’s not hard to imagine how this might happen. Many working remotely have the option of staying in their pajamas, working from the couch, and opting for smaller, easier tasks when they’re feeling run down.

This level of flexibility is not the problem. In fact, when it comes to mental wellness, remote work has many benefits. The MHI found that individuals working from home were 3x more likely than individuals at the worksite to report an improvement in their working lives compared to before the pandemic.

The problem occurs when leaders don’t encourage staff to take the rest they need. Yes, it might be physically possible for employees to push through the workday when they’re unwell, but that doesn’t mean they should.

Working through an illness can delay recovery, potentially leading to an even more significant health problem down the road. It may also lead to presenteeism — when someone is technically present (or logged on), but unable to fully perform. Additionally, a culture of presenteeism can create unnecessary guilt when someone does decide to take a sick day, or leave them feeling as though they must be severely ill to justify calling in.  

Here is where leaders should ask themselves the question: are you sending the message that employees should feel guilty for taking time off — especially since it’s easier to plow through the day in a remote environment?

While I doubt anyone is condemning sick time in a staff memo, sometimes actions speak louder than words. Are you taking time off when you’re ill and communicating that with your team? Are you sending a slew of emails to staff on their sick days? Are workloads so heavy that employees don’t feel they can take unplanned time off?

All these things contribute to a culture where sick days are seen as a last resort instead of a first line of defense.

It can be easy to dismiss the holistic nature of health, but the truth is that mental and physical health are deeply connected. Things like stress can wreak havoc on physical health, just as physical illness (including chronic disease) is closely linked with mental health problems.

For staff to feel and perform at their best, leaders must create environments that set them up for health, wellness, and success. That means encouraging team members to disconnect from work and rest when they are unwell. It also means modelling good behaviours — taking your own sick time, avoiding presenteeism, and ensuring workloads are manageable enough that physical recovery is not hindered by undue stress.

I’ve written in the past about taking the sort of proactive rest we need for our mental health. Using that time to disengage is essential to protect and promote our mental wellness. The same is true of physical health.

Normalize taking the time you need when you need it. Not when it’s more convenient, or when an illness has reached an unmanageable level.

When staff do take the sick leave they need, encourage them to fully disconnect and devote their attention to their own recovery.

This new era of hybrid work shouldn’t come at the expense of employee well-being — mental or physical. Let’s shift from a culture of getting by, to getting better.