Does Attending Work When Ill Vary Across Different Office Concepts? A Bayesian Analysis of Differences in Sickness Presenteeism using Nationally Representative Data

Abstract Several studies have examined how sickness absence varies across different office concepts, but the potential role of sickness presenteeism (i.e., attending work when faced with health complaints) is poorly understood. We discuss how different office concepts may influence the decision between attending and not attending work when faced with health complaints, and the implications this may have for how observed differences in sickness absence are interpreted. We then use data from a nationwide probability sample from Norway (N = 3112) to explore (i) differences in presenteeism among employees in different office concepts with and without assigned workstations (i.e., private, conventional shared-room, conventional open-plan, non-territorial) and (ii) whether and how perceived health status moderates these differences. Based on a frequency measure of presenteeism, we infer about likely differences in presenteeism propensity by adjusting for perceived health status and self-certified sickness absence, in addition to important demographic and occupational covariates. Results from Bayesian cumulative probit models indicated similar levels of presenteeism among employees in private and conventional shared-room and open-plan offices and lower levels among employees in non-territorial offices. Differences in presenteeism between private and non-territorial offices increased as perceived health status deteriorated. Our study represents an important step towards a complete picture of attendance patterns across different office concepts. Our findings suggest that whether you have a personalized workstation may be relevant for attending or not attending work when faced with health complaints. Future studies should take this into account when interpreting differences in sickness absence observed across office concepts.