The results of a poll taken by the Internet job recruiting portal “SuperJob.ru” show that 94% of Russians courageously fight off their colds at work. Respondents between the ages of 30 and 40 (97%) reported having to do so most often.
Forty-seven percent of the respondents explained this neglect of their health with the fact that they cannot delegate their work to a colleague. They explained that no one at their workplace besides themselves could handle the specific problems they deal with. However, the reason for this attitude is not the fact that they doubt their coworkers’ competency, but rather that there is simply an absence of anyone to fill in for them since the majority of companies’ staffs have been “streamlined for efficiency,” or, in other words, downsized. Even so, there are still others who simply do not want to burden their coworkers with their responsibilities.
It appears that 25% of Russians simply ignore health problems and come into work because they do not want to lose the day’s pay. Ten percent of respondents can not or do not want to go to a hospital or clinic to get a doctor’s note for work. A large part of these respondents are 23 years old or younger (14%). Russians aged 40-50 and those 50+ are more willing to go to a doctor’s office when they are sick (6% and 1% more, respectively). About 8% of the respondents go to work when they are sick solely out of fear that their supervisor will be upset with them for taking a sick day. Conversely, 11% of female employees and 6% of male employees reported being forced to go home by management when they were sick.
According to the poll’s results, the strongest incentive for not taking sick days was a large salary; 96% of those who went to work while ill received a salary of 45,000 rubles per month or more.
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