Working From Home While Ill: The Role of Organizational and Governmen...

Although work(ing) from home (WFH) has been on the rise in the past decades, the implementation of this flexible work arrangement experienced an unprecedented boost in organizations worldwide during theCOVID-19 pandemic. While WFH arrangements are associated with advantages for employees and organizations, they are not without challenges. One largely neglected issue pertains to employees’ health-related workplace attendance behaviors. Therefore, the present study investigates the relationship between differently regulated forms of WFH and employees’ decision to work (i.e., sickness presenteeism; SP) or not to work (i.e., sickness absenteeism; SA) while ill. In addition, we compare pre-COVID-19 pandemic data with data collected during the pandemic, focusing on the potential influence of organizational and governmental regulations on the relationship between WFH and SP. We use two representative samples of the German working population drawn from the BAuA Working Time Survey, conducted in 2019 (N= 5,393) and 2021 (N = 10,142). Overall, we find that a higher degree of organizational regulation in WFH might protect employees to some extent from exhibiting SP. In addition, our findings indicate that WFH might not be universally advisable and, indeed, might backfire when forced on employees.