Despite the fact that workers in Greece take only 0.2 weeks of sick leave per year (compared to 2.6 weeks on average in the EU), this does not translate into higher productivity, notes a report of “Kathimerini”. On the contrary, the Greek economy continues to lag in terms of productivity per hour of work.
This picture is based on analysis of the German companies IFB and Data Pulse Research, which utilized data of the OECD. According to the experts, the phenomenon is explained to a large extent by the so-called “presenteeism”, which is observed in the European South. According to this many workers continue to work even when they are sick, mainly due to economic insecurity (they are usually not fully paid when they are sick or fear of loss of the job position).
Productivity shows how efficiently an economy produces goods/services, that is how much output corresponds to each worker or hour of work.
The “paradox” becomes more evident if Greece is compared with countries of Northern Europe. For example, in Norway workers receive about 5.9 weeks of sick leave annually, but the country records among the highest productivity performances in Europe. This overturns the stereotype that fewer leaves automatically lead to better results for the performance of the economy.
In reality, productivity, that is how much output corresponds to each worker or hour of work, depends mainly on deeper factors, such as the organization of work, the investment of companies in well-trained workers and the use of technology and less on the amount of sick leaves. Indeed, working with illness lowers productivity, because it reduces performance, increases mistakes, delays the recovery of workers and increases the risk of transmission of the disease to other workers.
Source: Καθημερινή
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