PLOS Mental Health’s ‘The Bigger Picture’: Sick Leave or Work Sick

In the latest PLOS Mental Health ‘Bigger Picture’ seminar, we discuss mental health in the workplace – specifically absenteeism and presenteeism. Many of us have worked despite being sick and many of us have taken time off despite being well enough to work. But what determines when this happens and how much of an issue is it?

In the below discussion, our Executive Editor, Dr Karli Montague-Cardoso, is joined by PLOS Mental Health Co-Editor-in-Chief Charlene Sunkel and Section Editors Professor Christian Beste and Dr Sarah Jones, as well as Dr Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia (University of Toronto). Dr Nowrouzi-Kia is an Occupational Therapist, Researcher, PLOS Mental Health Academic Editor and the lead author of ‘Sick leave or work sick? Examining the antecedents and conceptualizations of presenteeism and absenteeism among teleworkers during COVID-19‘, which was published in the journal in May.

As well as discussing what may underlie behaviors when it comes to ‘showing up’ at work, the panel also discuss what workplaces can do to support the mental health of their staff and how this research could be expanded.