Much has been said, and well, about the importance of promoting mental health and well-being in the workplace, demonstrating its importance at an individual level and for the culture, climate and results of organizations.
However, although the promotion of health as a whole must be a priority, anyone can, at any time, get sick.
Absenteeism from work due to illness has been the subject of several analyzes regarding its impact on organizations. In this context, the impact on the sick person deserves particular attention.
While most people may need to interrupt work for a short period of time, in some cases due to prolonged illness (whatever the illness), this interruption raises questions that need to be reflected upon, specifically because their understanding can contribute to the implementation of practical measures that aim to facilitate, at the organizational level, the adaptation of the person to the illness and the interruption and subsequent return to the workplace.
How does the life of a person who, spending part of their daily time at the workplace, no longer has the ability to work, become? How it feels? How do you deal with it? What losses do you have and feel? What losses can you have? What needs do you have?
In many cases, in the face of sick leave, the elements of the organization (colleagues, superiors, among others) no longer maintain the connection with the person who becomes ill.
For the most varied reasons.
Some because they don't want to. Others because they don't know if and how to do it. Some because they don't put themselves in the perspective of the person who is sick. Others still because they are afraid. What they can see or hear. From your own fears.
What, therefore, can be important, from the perspective of the sick person, in maintaining this connection, if desired, to the workplace during the period of illness?
The answer is truly simple: support.
Support from the organization throughout the disease process. Support, by the elements of the organization, in maintaining the connection with the sick person in support of any specific needs (day-to-day, emotional, informational, among others), within the scope of their possibilities and roles.
Maintaining the connection with the person who is sick with the aim of supporting them during the illness process and on their return to work demonstrates the organization's genuine and compassionate commitment, helping to facilitate the adaptation to the illness, the preparation for the return and the reintegration of the person into the workplace, also promoting feelings of belonging and trust in the organization.
Often, when a person dies, family members claim that, at that moment, many people were available to support, although, in the following days, most of these people had “disappeared”. This pattern of support, which tends to replicate itself in the context of the illness, ceases just when the person's needs may be greatest.
It's true that when someone gets sick, life (of other people and organizations) goes on. Is well. Must continue.
It is also true that the sick person's life is interrupted and, in many circumstances, their experiences may have to be re-signified and their life may take on a different meaning. Because when a person goes through a challenging experience, he is never the same again.
We all have our lives. Each of us has our own needs and difficulties.
However, just as family and friends take care of sick people, organizations must also take care of their employees.
Support. In the most varied ways. It costs nothing. It could be one of us.
Because without people there are no organizations.
Author: Marina Carvalho is a psychologist, specialist in Clinical and Health Psychology and in Psychotherapies; primary health assistant at CHUA's Portimão Unit; director of the Department of Psychology and Physical Education at ISMAT; researcher at the Institute of Environmental Health – Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon.
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