The Story behind Absenteeism
Prevention is better than a cure
Are you also interested in the story? The story behind the story?
Curious? Do you recognize that?
From there, you can make choices from the heart.
Have you ever looked at the choices you’ve made and what did you regret the most?
And was that choice made from your head or your heart? Try to figure it out.
I can almost say with 100% certainty that choices that came from the heart have not encountered regret. There was always a story behind the story why you needed to make that decision anyway.
What I'd like to tell you is the following
For a long time, I worked in roles within absenteeism as an Interim Case Manager.
I used to genuinely believe that in companies, when you got a job, you could choose which department to work in. And that was the bee’s knees! Working at a company, that was truly interesting, that’s real life, and that’s where it happens. And I thought, well… What should I do now? I studied Tourism. But I didn’t want to work at a travel agency or for a tour operator at all. What do I want to do with Tourism then? Travel a lot 
I ended up in HR departments quite early on, I was always interested in people. After that, I came into contact with a Case Manager position.
A new department. A commercial occupational health service… Gosh, my heart skipped a beat! This is what I’ve always wanted. Now, we’re really going to talk about people. After all, that’s what the organization is all about.
I gradually rolled into the world of absenteeism. Back then, 20 years ago, the Gatekeeper Improvement Act was introduced. The time of Hudson. Super nice and fun colleagues whom I still consider good friends.
We sat together in a cubicle. There was nothing. A completely new plan devised by the government and the business sector; now go and implement it. the Gatekeeper Improvement Act. Develop a plan of action? How? Problem analysis, what’s that? We had to look up everything. We had such a fun time. We had so much fun on the work floor. When you talk about workplace happiness, that was definitely that time. The cowboys of absenteeism, pioneering together.
Ultimately, we all completed a proper University of Applied Sciences education in case management together. And we also thought, now we’re going to help people and be there for sick employees who are being reintegrated into the workplace. To remove the sting of why someone had reported sick.
In the beginning, we were allowed to do a lot. Before there was a consultation with the company doctor, we could call the sick employee and ask further questions. Another case manager had a major client that sold beds. My colleague handled the internal case manager conversations there. After a sick person was reported, they first had the employees come for an interview and ask further questions. Under the guise. Reporting sick is a choice, being sick is not. The labor expert performed the GRIP scan. first check whether it was psychological absenteeism or work-related and then consult the company doctor.
We used daring coaching for that time, coaching with the subconscious and it worked very well. The people who received this form of coaching all returned to work after 3 to 4 sessions. Or made a decision to do something different. We had a lot of freedom, were allowed to do a lot and made good agreements with the customers, so that the customers were happy and the customers finally got a grip on absenteeism. And no longer under the dusty layer of the occupational health service and if someone was ill, you only saw them again when they had been declared better.
We talked about case management. New, innovative and a new way of looking at sick reports. Golden times, really. We had the feeling that something was now really being done.
The Coaching Case Manager
I thought that myself for a long time and after all you are there yourself. I was not the traditional Case Manager, but the coaching Case Manager, always looking for the cause of the sick report. What was the real story? What really happened? What went wrong? And keep communicating with each other.
With my own vision on protocols and rules. But when it came to people, it increasingly focused on protocols. Rules, rules and more rules have been added.
Absenteeism due to illness was high and did not continue to increase, but the psychological complaints associated with absenteeism did. According to Arbo Unie they keep increasing. And the periods of illness are also getting longer.
When will the turning point come?
How we contribute
What we like to do and what we contribute to is giving people the confidence that they can do it themselves. Take responsibility and make contact with yourself.
Why? Simply because I believe that you always have to go to the cause. The cause of absenteeism, the cause of reporting sick, the cause of an illness. Because the cause contains the growth towards healing and the solution. Especially with psychological absenteeism.
Actually go and see what’s going on.