TITLE:
Psychosocial Factors Involved in Absenteeism—A Qualitative Analysis in a Brazilian Context
AUTHORS:
Alessandro Vinicius de Paula, Ximena Christina de Carvalho Oliveira, Ana Alice Vilas Boas, Júlia de Moura Martins Guimarães
KEYWORDS:
Absence from Work, Psychosocial Factors, Absenteeism, Work, Qualitative Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.8,
June
9,
2014
ABSTRACT: Work is a
fundamental activity for human beings not only because it provides the benefit
of a wage but also because it allows the subject to draw primitive anxieties
that are evoked only in the frame of human-work relations. In Brazilian
context, removed workers are often victims of prejudice beyond the organization
space, triggering feelings of weakness and uselessness. The absence from work
may also jeopardize both physical and mental health. Thus, this study aims to
understand the psychosocial factors (social support, affect, coping skills and
perception of future and health status) involved in absenteeism and the process
of withdrawing work and its consequences on people’s lives. A qualitative
approach was chosen for gathering and analyzing data. Four workers from
different professional categories participated in this qualitative study. It
was observed that stop working brought serious implications for the lives of
investigated subjects, who reported feelings of estrangement, fear, emptiness,
depression, helplessness and dependence. The most frequent difficulties in
relation to absenteeism refer to the part of the tie break of social and
financial issues. The main strategy for dealing with problems arising from job
withdraws was to seek social support from friends and family. Regarding plans
and the prospective, they experienced a critical period (immobilization),
requiring a process of (re)adapting to the new situation ahead. Given the
above, it is noteworthy to understand that the consequences of absenteeism or
temporary withdrawing of labor become a necessary measure to preserve physical
and mental health; a task open to interventions of work and organizational psychology.