Ok, so what does ‘leavism’ actually mean?
It’s the latest term for defining employees who end up working, during non-paid work hours, annual leave or whilst off sick. According to new research from CIPD, 69% of employees have said that ‘leavism’ has happened in their workplace in the past year.
Unfortunately, it is an increasing issue for all types of companies and needs to be taken very seriously. If you don’t combat low morale and increased stress levels among your employees eventually it will affect your productivity.
Below we’ve outlined a few red flags you should look out for:
Employees working out of hours
Answering urgent calls and messages is one thing. But if an employee is consistently working late at night or very early in the morning in order to finish work they couldn’t get done during working hours it clearly needs to be addressed.
Employees constantly checking emails
We can’t escape it, the world is connected these days, however, your employees may feel pressure to be available at all times, even while they’re away from work. They may think you expect them to read and answer emails 24/7, and see it as a sign of their commitment to your business.
Employees too scared to book holidays
Research shows that 23% of UK workers struggle to book time off or take allocated annual leave because they are too anxious to leave their work in a fellow colleagues hands.
As an employer – what can you do?
If you start to see a trend in your business of your employees regularly working beyond their contracted hours and spending their annual leaving completing jobs, then you should strongly consider redistributing their workloads or hiring extra employees.
You should also make sure you aren’t promoting a culture of fear, where your employees are scared of what will happen if they don’t finish their work.
If you ignore these signs, you may think in the short term, you’re saving money because employees are completing work without getting paid for it! but at some point down the line you’ll need to weigh this against the cost of employee burnout, mental health issues and retention.
If you need any advice on any HR issue, big or small, then please get in touch.
