What is Absenteeism Policy?

A policy about attendance requirements, scheduled and unscheduled time off, and measures for dealing with workplace absenteeism. Repeated absenteeism can lead to termination.

• Scheduled time off: Excused absences from regular work hours scheduled in advance by an employee for such things as vacation, medical appointments, military service, jury duty, etc.
• Unscheduled time off: Absence from work during regular work hours that was not scheduled in advance by the employee (e.g. sickness). Absences are generally accepted and sometimes compensated if their frequency and rationale fall within an organization’s attendance policy.

Factors for absenteeism

Depending on which state or country you work in, there is a variance in the amount of compensation you can expect to receive for sick leave. For example, in Norway there is a 100% insurance for workers earnings lost as a result of absence.

There are sex differences in absence behavior. Rates of absence for women are greater than those for men. This is both physiological as well as sociological. For example, when kids are ill it’s oftentimes the mother who stays home to take care of them. This leads to a higher absence frequency that usually doesn’t take that long.