Leaveism in English and Welsh police forces: baseline reference values

Abstract

Background: Leaveism is a recently coined term for alternative attendance behaviours to sickness absence and sickness presence. Initial studies suggest that leaveism might mask the true extent of sickness in organisations and represent a response to perceived job insecurity, the belief that sickness absence could harm promotion prospects, and low job gratification.Aims: To generate baseline reference values for leaveism in English and Welsh police forces to facilitate benchmarking and risk-reduction activities.Methods: Officers represented by the Police Federation of England and Wales contributed survey data on the incidence of three leaveism dimensions in the year to February 2016. We applied descriptive statistics to characterise leaveism and Pearson's χ 2 tests to examine differences in incidence rates by socio-and occupationaldemographic factors.Results: Annual leave or rest days were used to take time off from work due to physical health complaints by 8,499/14,451 (59%) of respondents and psychological health complaints by 5,983/14,326 (42%) (dimension 1). Work was taken home that could not be completed in normal working hours by 7,515/14,959 (50%) of respondents (dimension 2), and 5,974/14,963 (40%) reported having worked while on annual leave in order to catch up with work (dimension 3). Incidence rates on dimensions 2 and 3 differed markedly by rank, with higher ranks reporting higher rates.Conclusions: These sector-wide findings suggest that leaveism is a cause for concern.Further research is required to identify sector-specific causes of leaveism with a view to informing interventions to tackle the problem.

Prevalence of Mental Illness and Mental Health Care Use Among Police Officers

“…Although the prevalence of mental illness among officers has been documented, 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 limited literature has characterized patterns and barriers of mental illnesses and described characteristics of officers who express interest in seeking help. Fox et al 16 conducted a study among 150 officers in a suburban police department in the northeastern US.…”

Work-to-non-work spillover: the impact of public service motivation and meaningfulness on outcomes in work and personal life domains

“…Second, due to its nature and high social expectations policing has long been viewed as a type of occupation that is "never off duty" (Buttle, Fowler, and Williams 2010; Houdmont and Elliott-Davies 2017). Furthermore, "leaveism" (e.g., taking work home' that cannot be completed in normal working hours and working whilst on leave or holiday to catch up) has been identified as a key issue in in UK policing (Houdmont, Elliott-Davies, and Donnelly 2018). Leaveism in policing has been shown to adversely impact individual wellbeing (Hesketh, Cooper, and Ivy 2014) and personal relationships (Houdmont and Elliott-Davies 2017).…”

Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland

“…Many recent studies highlight the range of mental health issues experienced by people working in police organisations across the world and evidence suggests that the ways in which mental health challenges manifest in police workforces differ from other organisations. However, to date, little research has been conducted in the UK on MH issues in the police forces (Bell & Eski, 2016;Houdmont et al, 2018;Johnson et al, 2005). Recent Police Service of Scotland (PSoS) staff surveys have identified that MH issues, such as anxiety and depression, are a concern, as are a number of organisational risk factors which impact on MH, wellbeing and family life (Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, 2015).…”