Does Your Workplace Have
a Culture of Sick Leave?
HERE’S WHY AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT
A colleague once remarked to me that seven people in his
department, out of a company of 400 people, had claimed
short-term disability (STD) for stress leave in the last two
years. I asked how this could be – is there something go-ing
on in the workplace? “No,” he replied. “It’s just that it’s known
that if you get divorced or separated, you get to take stress leave.”
workplace culture
I asked a few other colleagues in the insurance industry if they
have ever seen this phenomenon. “Absolutely not,” said a disability
case manager at The Co-operators Life. “Stress leave is serious, and
the medical evidence required is quite extensive.” Another colleague
at the same insurer mentioned that almost half of her department
had experienced a divorce, but they all worked through it.
By Yafa Sakkejha
Kamira/Shutterstock
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JULY/AUGUST 2014 ❚ 41