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| Gail Koch is a junior journalism major and writes 'And Another Thing' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. |
Imagine being told you could earn a couple hundred bucks at the end of each semester -- simply by showing up to class.
While it may be a concept unheard of to university administrators, it's one that is slowly becoming the norm for employers nationwide who are looking to crack down on employee absenteeism.
According to a recent survey of 333 U.S. companies conducted by human resource and employment law provider CCH Inc., the average per-employee cost of absenteeism climbed to an all-time high of $789 per year in 2002, an increase from $755 in 2001.
In an effort to combat the growing absentee epidemic, employers are suddenly offering incentives -- like thousands of dollars in bonuses -- to lure workers into better attendance on the job.
As lucrative as these offers may be, how ethical and healthy are they in the long run?
For example, my high school started a similar policy to boost attendance the year after I graduated. The policy said if students maintained perfect attendance for the semester, they would be exempt from taking final exams.
Students stuck to the policy, but dozens ended up in the classroom with fevers, colds and the stomach flu -- all because they would rather show up sick than take the dreaded end-of-the-year exams.
Will a similar situation arise at the corporate level? Will such a policy lead to employees showing up for work, even if it means they may expose their coworkers to illness?
The answer could be yes, as the thought of making that much extra cash would be enough of a lure for many employees to forgo considering the health risks of such a deal.
Many company officials, however, are defensively boasting that their bonus programs are a big draw to up-and-coming employees.
Starmark International, a Fort Lauderdale-based marketing firm with about 40 employees, pays its workers $100 for each unclaimed sick day. With a policy allowing for six sick days a year, that's an extra $600 for perfect attendance in addition to one's salary.
Now it may sound as if I'm putting Corporate America down when I say this, but what kind of message are we sending workers by developing such carrot-and-stick reward programs?
After all, isn't knowing you live in a country where you have a job -- where you're not destitute or unemployed -- reason enough to show up to the office on a regular basis?
Apparently not, as 54 percent of the companies surveyed by CCH reported use similar bonus programs for their employees.
Yet what money-hungry, big-time executives don't seem to understand is how these bonus programs may negatively affect workers' health and morale in the long run.
What these policies are insinuating is that money is more important than employees' taking sick days to nurse themselves back to health, that parents shouldn't take personal days to see their children in school plays or sporting events, and that bad weather isn't reason enough to stay home and miss work.
Such accusations may be strong, but hearing about these bonus policies makes me wonder if there will come a time when greed forces us to forget what it's like to live a life outside our cubicle walls.
For many, such a sad possibility already rings true.
Write to Gail at glkoch@bsu.edu
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