25 of February, 2025

Navigating through the different types of work absenteeism can be tricky, but fortunately, we’re here to help. Each type of absence carries its own set of legal protections and solutions.

In this article, we will discuss different types of absences and how to handle them. Let’s get to it!

What types of work absenteeism are there?

There are several types of work absenteeism that can occur in a company. Each type of absence carries different legal protections and solutions. Here are the types we will further develop below:

Justified absenteeism.
Unjustified absenteeism.
Voluntary absenteeism.
Involuntary absenteeism.
Emotional absenteeism.
Presenteeism.

For instance, justified absences are protected by law, and the employer can’t take any disciplinary actions against the employee.

On the other hand, voluntary absences are not protected, and the employer can take disciplinary measures against the employee.

Let’s dive into the details of each of the types of work absenteeism that exist.

Justified absenteeism

Within the types of work absenteeism, justified absences are those approved by the HR department.

And they usually are due to reasons such as illness, family emergencies or maternity/paternity leaves.

This type of absence is usually regulated by law, and doesn’t entail any problem for employees.

However, these absences must be correctly reported in the time and form established in each company.

Unjustified absenteeism

Unjustified absences are those that are not approved by HR. And they usually occur due to tardiness, feigning illness, or unauthorized absences.

These types of work absenteeism can be a problem for employers, as they can affect their bottom line. Unauthorized absences can lead to a loss of productivity and a decrease in morale.

In some cases, they can also lead to job loss. That’s why it’s important for companies to have policies in place to address unjustified absences.

Unjustified absences can result in disciplinary measures taken by the employer, up to and including termination.

Voluntary absenteeism, one of the types of work absenteeism

One of the main types of work absenteeism is voluntary absenteeism.

This occurs when an employee chooses to spend more time away from work to meet their personal needs. Like taking vacations or spending time with family.

While this often doesn’t imply a direct cost to the company, it can entail an indirect cost by reducing a person’s work productivity. Or by increasing the workload for other team members.

Involuntary absenteeism

Involuntary absence is one of the hardest types of work absenteeism to manage. It’s caused by situations beyond our control, such as a pandemic, an economic crisis, or wars.

Maintaining a solid communication during this period is essential for all parties involved, as it allows understanding and provides a sense of security.

The main goal should be to react quickly and propose solutions that decrease the negative impact while being respectful to the needs and rights of everyone.

Training can be done online or via videoconferences so employees can stay current with the company’s policy.

Emotional absenteeism

Emotional absenteeism is the situation where employees attend their work, but are not fully present. They don’t give the desired performance, and therefore their performance is affected.

These types of work absenteeism can be due to stress, anxiety, or depression. Or other types of personal problems that affect at an emotional level.

Absences for emotional reasons are not protected by law today. Unless they are justified as medical leave or as days of absence for personal reasons.

Presenteeism

Presenteeism is the type of work absenteeism where the employee is physically present.

But their performance or productivity is not the same as when the employee is focused.

This situation is often linked to emotional absenteeism. Although it could be due to other causes, such as work discontent.

Legal protection against different types of work absenteeism

Once you’ve identified the different types of work absenteeism, it is important to ensure that you have adequate legal protection.

This means that your enterprise or business will have legal protection if any of your employees fails to attend work for no good reason.

This is vital because absenteeism can have a significant impact on your productivity and the overall performance of your enterprise.

To obtain this protection, you need to ensure that you have the right policies in place and communicate them clearly to your employees.

You also need to make sure that you have documented all the labor agreements. And established the internal procedures for dealing with work absenteeism and complying with the law.

Solutions for different types of work absenteeism

There are several solutions you can explore when managing the different types of work absenteeism.

So, let’s look at the steps to improve company planning. At the same time, promoting internal communication and work-life balance to increase employee satisfaction.

As a bonus, you can use an HR software to streamline the management of all these steps.

Improvement of planning

If you improve your planning, you can ensure that absences have the least possible impact on your company.

One solution is to have a good attendance policy. This policy should describe the consequences of missing work without a very good reason. It should also specify the procedures that employees should follow to report an absence.

You should ensure that all employees are aware of the company’s absence policy.

This includes both planned and unforeseen absences, and it’s important that all know the procedures for both types of work absenteeism.

Promotion of internal communication

To improve planning, you should also promote good internal communication among employees and management regarding different types of work absenteeism.

On top of that, the human resources department should also have smooth communication channels with the employees. Especially when it comes to notifications of absences.

This includes regular meetings, or even regular communication via email or chat. It’s crucial that everyone is up to date with what’s happening in the company, to plan accordingly.

In that regard, it’s vital to have an easy way to share absence justifications, especially when there’s an unforeseen circumstance.

Work-life balance

You can use work-life balance to increase the benefits of the company. This measure focuses on providing more flexibility to both workers and their families.

By allowing them to adapt their workday and schedules, it becomes easier to harmonize work needs with personal ones.

This ultimately results in fewer unnecessary absence days in all types of work absenteeism.

Job satisfaction

Many times the cause of absenteeism is burnout or lack of motivation at work. To avoid this, foster a positive environment where employees feel supported and valued, encouraging internal communication.

Apart from being present if there’s an issue, you can create programs to improve the involvement of your team.

You can organize workshops to promote teamwork, creative meetings to unite the team, or resort to salary benefits to improve job satisfaction.

These incentives can help you increase the productivity of the team and even significantly decrease the different types of work absenteeism.

Absence managers for different types of work absenteeism

To manage the different types of work absenteeism, another solution is to have a good human resources software. This software can help you track employee absences and ensure that everyone is following the attendance policy.

It can also help you identify patterns in absences and find solutions to reduce them.

Vacation and absence managers are a useful tool to combat absenteeism.

These tools, like Sesame HR, assist employees in keeping track of all their vacation requests. Thus reducing errors and document forgeries. They also have the ability to alert them about holidays on their calendar.

This not only allows you to keep on top of work absenteeism but also helps improve communication among employees and allows you to better manage your team.

Want to improve team productivity and reduce absenteeism? Keep reading about our HR software, and we’ll tell you how you can take advantage of it. We await you in the blog!

Professional with over 20 years of extensive experience in various areas of Human Resources (Recruitment, Training, Occupational Risk Prevention, and Personnel Management). Experience in the Management Department: Broad understanding of the company and HR.

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cristinamartin

HR Content Specialist

How to deal with different types of absenteeism at work from HR