{"id":563099,"date":"2026-07-01T08:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T08:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/563099\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T08:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T08:48:13","slug":"workplace-trends-2026-increase-in-workers-unfit-to-attend-office-but-fit-to-work-from-home-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/563099\/","title":{"rendered":"Workplace trends 2026: Increase in workers \u2018unfit\u2019 to attend office, but fit to work from home \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Employers are seeing a significant rise in absenteeism, alongside an increase in sick notes certifying workers \u201cunfit\u201d to attend the office but fit to work from home, according to a HR firm.<\/p>\n

Damien McCarthy<\/b>, founder and chief executive of consultancy firm HR Buddy, said his team is currently dealing with managing absenteeism in workplaces \u201cevery day\u201d.<\/p>\n

Noting that employees have been entitled to five days of sick pay per year since January 2024, he believes this may \u201cnaturally\u201d be resulting in a spike in sick leave in \u201cmost workplaces\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, McCarthy says absenteeism is now turning into \u201clong-term\u201d sick leave in many cases, which is often going unchecked by employers, potentially due to management apprehension.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lack of confidence which we do observe from an awful lot of line managers. They\u2019re frightened to deal with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This is largely due to a lack of confidence on behalf of management, he believes, \u201cbecause they\u2019re afraid it\u2019s going to end up in the WRC [Workplace Relations Commission]<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis perceived threat that the absent employee is perhaps \u2018dangerous\u2019, or management feel they need to tiptoe around the issue because they think they\u2019ll end up in the WRC and they\u2019ll be wrong, is very much a culture that exists in Irish business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Getting a sick note isn\u2019t as easy as it used to beOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The ongoing drive to return to the office is also potentially contributing to the rise in absenteeism, he said, describing a level of \u201cinsecurity\u201d in attending the office, alongside an ongoing \u201cbattle for remote-working rights\u201d.<\/p>\n

Also on the rise this year are medical certs from GPs certifying workers \u201cunfit\u201d to attend the office, but fit to work from home, McCarthy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen several of these,\u201d he said, describing the certs as \u201cunreasonable\u201d and \u201cnonsensical\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not fit to be in a workplace, how are you fit to work from home? It\u2019s unworkable in an awful lot of job roles and in an awful lot of organisations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Employers should be involving their company doctors and occupational health teams \u201cmuch earlier\u201d in such cases, alongside for general absenteeism, he said, to assess and potentially accommodate those absent from work or the office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not for HR or a line manager to try and ascertain and understand someone\u2019s medical needs or how you can accommodate them in a workplace. That advice has to be taken from a medical professional,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If you have work-related questions, from how to deal with burnout to running your own business, The Irish Times Work Q&A column is here to help. You can use the form below to submit your question. Please limit your submissions to 400 words or less and please include a phone number. Your name and contact details will be confidential and only be used for verification purposes. Any details about your employer will also be anonymised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Employers are seeing a significant rise in absenteeism, alongside an increase in sick notes certifying workers \u201cunfit\u201d to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,19,17,80,162346,81],"class_list":["post-563099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-work","tag-work-q-a","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}