An apologetic message. An offer to check emails from bed. A promise to make up the time.
When an employee calls in sick, their concern is not always just about feeling unwell. It can also be about disappointing their manager, leaving colleagues under pressure or being seen as unreliable.
A recent BBC article exploring why people feel guilty about taking sick leave highlights how workplace culture can influence whether someone feels comfortable taking time off.
For small businesses, this raises an important question: do your employees feel able to say they are too unwell to work?
The small-team dilemma
In a small business, one person’s absence can make an immediate difference. There may be appointments to rearrange, deadlines to manage or customers who still need support.
Employees know this. Close working relationships can make them particularly reluctant to leave colleagues carrying extra work.
That sense of responsibility is understandable. But when a business relies on people working through illness to keep things moving, commitment can become pressure.
At Lomarton, we believe effective absence management needs to recognise both sides: the business needs continuity, and employees need to feel able to take time off when they are not fit to work.
What message are your managers sending?
A sickness policy might explain how to report an absence, but the response employees receive tells them how that policy works in practice.
Comments such as “We’re already short-staffed” or “Could you just log on for the morning?” may be intended as practical questions. To an unwell employee, they can sound like an expectation to keep working.
The same applies when someone is praised for never taking a sick day or for attending a meeting despite being ill. What looks like recognition of dedication can send an unintended message about what the business values.
Managers do not need to ignore the operational impact of absence. However, arranging cover and reprioritising work should not become a test of how guilty an employee feels.
Working from home is still working
For businesses with remote or hybrid arrangements, the boundary can become blurred.
Being too unwell to travel does not always mean someone is unable to work. Equally, having a laptop at home does not mean they are well enough to use it.
“Stay home, but keep an eye on your emails” should not become the automatic response to sickness.
The starting point should be whether the employee is fit to work, rather than where they can work from. Any arrangement should be clear, appropriate to the circumstances and free from an assumption that sick leave means being available in the background.
Support and accountability can sit together
Creating a supportive culture does not mean avoiding conversations about absence or leaving managers uncertain about what they can ask.
Businesses still need clear reporting arrangements, appropriate contact during absence and a consistent approach to understanding recurring concerns.
The difference is in how those conversations are handled. A return-to-work discussion can be an opportunity to check how someone is, understand whether support is needed and discuss any concerns fairly. It should not feel like a punishment for having been off sick.
Likewise, consistency means using a fair approach while considering individual circumstances, not assuming every absence requires an identical response.
Look beyond the absence figures
Low sickness absence may look positive on a dashboard, but it does not tell the whole story. It is worth asking whether people are well, or simply reluctant to take time off.
For an SME, useful questions include:
- Do managers know how to respond when someone reports sick?
- Are employees expected to remain contactable or complete work while absent?
- Is essential work documented so someone else can pick it up?
- Do leaders model the same approach to sickness that they encourage in others?
- Can employees raise concerns about workload or wellbeing without feeling judged?
These questions help move the conversation beyond counting days towards understanding how the business actually operates.
A healthier approach to absence
You cannot prevent every illness or remove every disruption. You can create an environment where employees understand the process, managers respond confidently and concerns are addressed without blame.
At Lomarton, we help small businesses build practical, proportionate approaches to sickness absence from reviewing policies and supporting managers to advising on individual situations.
If managing absence feels like a choice between supporting your people and protecting your business, speak to us. A well-managed approach should do both.