Covid-related sick leave doubled in 2021

Where this reason for stopping represented 6% of total absences last year, 12% of sick leaves prescribed in 2021 are linked to Sars-Cov-2.

Stops for psychological disorders or professional exhaustion also increased over one year, from 15 to 17% of the total.

Conversely, absences for ordinary illnesses (flu, colds, etc.) fell to 25% of the total, against 30% in 2020.

For all reasons, 38% of employees were prescribed a work stoppage during the twelve months preceding the study.

A higher proportion than that observed in 2020 (36%) but below the 40% systematically crossed between 2016 and 2019, before the outbreak of the Covid.

Although more numerous than in 2020, the sick leave prescriptions are not necessarily respected by the employees.

A quarter of the stops are thus taken partially or not at all.

The health crisis seems to have particularly weighed on managers: 51% of them have been affected by sick leave over the past two years.

However, illness did not necessarily rhyme with rest: more than half of managers say they have worked during an illness (70% in 2020 and 58% in 2021).

The annual Sickness Absenteeism barometer was carried out online with a sample of 2,009 employees and by telephone with 401 managers or HRDs of private sector companies, from August 23 to September 24, 2021.