Psychological absenteeism: time to turn the tide

Off balance

If you lose the balance between what gives you energy and what consumes energy, this can lead to psychological complaints. “It is often a combination of different elements: what happens to you in your private life, your personality, your personal resilience and how you experience your work,” says Jurriaan Penders, company doctor and director of medical affairs at HumanCapitalCare. “You can compare it with a backpack. You fill it with all kinds of things from your work and private life. At some point, it can get too full due to worries, stress and other things that drain your energy. Your backpack does not distinguish between worries due to your work or any other cause, so it can easily become too heavy. In that case, you are no longer able to recharge and recover sufficiently, and then sometimes you fall over.”

Stress is unhealthy

Every person has a different size backpack. Some are filled faster than others and for some people it is also easier to carry. But it is getting increasingly difficult to keep walking with a backpack that is getting fuller. Worries about or due to work may be the cause of this. For instance, the National Survey on Working Conditions (NEA 2021) conducted by TNO and CBS shows that 10% of employees cannot easily meet the mental demands of the job. 36% experience high job requirements. “Tension or stress arises when you feel overstrained in the performance of all your duties. That is when we can lose our grip on things,” explains Jan Machek, psychologist at ArboNed. He is crystal clear about one thing: “There is no such thing as healthy stress. We mistakenly think that stress is part of life. When you are stressed, it feels like you are losing control. Like speeding through a corner in a car or when you lose track of your work. We have to get rid of the idea that this is part of life.”

Healthy tension

“However, we do need a degree of activation to perform optimally,” says Machek. “Just as a Formula 1 car performs best after a warm-up lap, our physical and mental system also works best when it is up to temperature. Examples are the nerves before a presentation or pressure we feel before a deadline. Our system sees a challenge, activates by putting us in the right gear and performs effectively. That is a healthy and intended response. We get stuck when we overload our system for too long, without being able to relax or recharge in between. Like a Formula 1 car overheating. The healthy and intended activation is then no longer effective for our functioning. That is when we experience stress and become less effective.”

Build-up of complaints

Stress-related complaints do not arise overnight. There is a build-up in the nature and severity of the complaints. It often starts with symptoms of tension, such as worrying, listlessness and tenseness. Machek: “Such complaints come from within. External factors certainly play a relevant role and the employer has an important responsibility to provide a safe and healthy work environment. But in the end, it is how a person deals with certain events that determines whether and to what extent this leads to stress complaints. People in someone’s immediate circle - such as colleagues - often already realise that something is going on. It is therefore important not to look away, but to send a signal and make it a topic of discussion. For generally speaking, the longer you wait to address any complaints, the worse they get and the longer it takes to recover.”

Stress complaints, emotional exhaustion & burnout

Company doctors therefore use three ascending levels of stress-related complaints in their diagnostics: stress complaints, emotional exhaustion and burnout. Data from ArboNed and HumanCapitalCare also show that the average recovery time for these diagnoses also increases. Penders: “Employees with stress complaints are unable to work for an average of 195 days. In case of emotional exhaustion, the average is 228 days and for burnout as many as 288 days. When you consider that one absence day costs around 300 euros on average and an employee is feeling miserable for months, doing nothing is really not an option.”

Removing the causes

Figures are increasing every year, which shows that absenteeism due to psychological complaints is a structural problem for employers and employees. This calls for a sustainable solution in preventing and addressing such complaints. A sustainable solution is not about fighting the symptoms, but about solving or removing the causes. But according to employees who cannot work due to psychological complaints, what is the (work-related) cause of their absenteeism? Research by Academische Werkplaats Arbeid en Gezondheid Tranzo and others shows four prominent themes: 

1. High workload and other unwanted changes in work;
2. Poor relationship with manager and/or colleagues;
3. Unhelpful or obstructive thoughts and feelings;
4. Ineffective way of dealing with stress and problems (coping).

Energy resources

Penders also sees opportunities for employers and employees in this context: “In general, things that give energy also protect against stress factors. After all, it’s all about that balance. Employers and employees can positively influence that balance. Employees who experience a lot of autonomy have the ability to organise their work in a way that it gives as much energy as possible and reduces the likelihood of stress. Connectedness, which revolves around a safe work environment and support from the manager and colleagues, also contributes to this. It is also important for employers to look closely at employees’ competences: are they using their talents and does their work match their values? Is there room for development and growth? It has been shown that autonomy, connectedness and a perceived sense of competence can be highly energising and can increase work motivation and satisfaction. This applies not only to employees with psychological complaints, but to all employees. The resilience of individual employees also plays a role here. It determines how well a person can cope with, for example, the high demands of their work: the more resilient a person is, the less stress they experience when doing their job. You can also work on that at an organisational level.”