Pandemic absenteeism 1700 million hours work lost companies - The pandemic 1700 million hours work lost companies due to absenteeism from work.

The COVID-19 pandemic unleashed in March 2020 has had a full impact on aspects such as telework and occupational health, and all this has influenced the rate of absenteeism in Spain to skyrocket to a new historic high of 7.1% in 2020. Or, in other words, almost 1.7 billion hours of work were lost last year.

This follows from the Report Adecco Business healthy, and management of absenteeism, which, however, admits the impossibility to quantify precisely how much the impact of COVID-19 to the context atypical produced, although it resulted in an increase of the working hours lost due to temporary incapacity (common illness or accident will not work).

Pandemic absenteeism 1700 million hours work lost companies

Other concepts are also contemplated, such as leave due to the need to care for sick relatives or lost hours in the workplace, such as lack of supplies, as explained in a press conference by the director of The Adecco Group, Francisco Javier Blasco. To this is added the sharp drop in the effective agreed hours due to the increase of the files of temporary regulation of employment (ERTE).

In any case, and despite the upward bias of the data, the absenteeism rate had already reached 5.5% in Spain in 2019, the highest figure in the last 20 years, although the outbreak of the coronavirus shot the absenteeism rate to 6.3% in the first quarter of 2020 and to 8.9% in the second, with an average of 7.1% in the year. That is, 1.6 percentage points more and a new all-time high.

This means that the total loss of working hours reached almost 1,700 million, the same as saying that 937,000 employees did not work throughout the year, which is a new maximum in the historical series, since the previous year had been about 814,400 employees in that simile.

Pandemic absenteeism 1700 million hours work lost companies

Blasco pointed out that, considering the average cost of each hour of work, that amount of millions of hours not worked can translate into a gross cost for the whole economy of 36,900 million euros in 2020, the equivalent of 3.3% of GDP, although this figure may be “a little bloated” given that last year GDP contracted by 11% due to the crisis.

Another data revealed by the report is that the agreed annual working day has remained stable since 2014, slightly below 1,800 hours, although in 2020 the average working day per worker and month increased slightly, to 1,800.9 hours.

For all sectors of industry, construction and services, the agreed hours went from 1,920 hours of work per year in 2000 to about 1,800 hours from 2014 to the present, with a reduction of 6.4%, the equivalent of 15 less work days after a year.

Pandemic absenteeism 1700 million hours work lost companies

The factors that determine this trend are explained by social aspects, such as a greater prevalence of leisure time, a growing preference for reconciling professional responsibilities with personal life.

The territorial analysis of the report shows that 11 autonomous communities recorded last year their highest rate of absenteeism since 2000: Andalusia, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura, Madrid and Navarre.

The highest rate of absenteeism (excluding hours lost for technical or economic reasons (ERTE)) corresponded once again to the Basque Country, with 9%, despite having reduced it. It was followed by the Canary Islands (7.8%), the Balearic Islands (7.7%), Catalonia (7.6%) and Asturias (7.2%), in all cases above the national average (7.1%). The lowest rates were in Castilla-La Mancha (4.8%), Andalusia (4.9%) and Extremadura (4.9%).

Pandemic absenteeism 1700 million hours work lost companies

The largest increases occurred in the Balearic Islands (+5.1 points), the Canary Islands (+1.8 points) and Catalonia (+1.5 points), and the most moderate in Castilla-La Mancha and Navarra, with a tenth more in both cases. Four regions managed to reduce their proportion of hours lost due to absenteeism: Aragon and Murcia (three tenths each), Basque Country and Galicia (two tenths).

The new edition of the report also measures the impact of the pandemic through a survey on aspects such as telework and occupational health. With regard to teleworking, the expectations of companies in their intention to maintain or implement teleworking after the end of the pandemic have improved.

Specifically, among those who want to implement it rises from 19.6% to 23% and those companies that do not foresee any use of this flexibility option fall from 30% to 21%, which shows that it is an option that has come to stay in the Spanish labor market.

Pandemic absenteeism 1700 million hours work lost companies

In fact, 63% of the companies consulted have a positive or very positive perception of productivity in teleworking and only 9% see it as something negative. For organizations, at least 44%, 2 days of teleworking per week would be ideal in the future.

However, they see work time management (68%) and performance and productivity measurement systems (57%) as aspects that can be improved, 2 of the facets that most concern, together with time registration and digital disconnection (56%) and cybersecurity (44%).

Another of the consequences of the pandemic is the increase of the so —called presentism— being present in the workplace, but dedicating part of the working day to other tasks that are not typical of that position -, since they increase to 16% of the companies that detect it, when 2 years ago it was 10%.

Pandemic absenteeism 1700 million hours work lost companies

Adecco explains that the face-to-face-to-remote hybridization in the organization of work is also reflected in the phenomenology of absences, since the dedication to domestic tasks without recovery of work time is one of the main causes of techno-presentism, as well as the use of the Internet, email or social networks for personal purposes.

Finally, 55% of respondents identified mental and cognitive problems (stress and techno-stress, anxiety or burnout) as the second cause perceived as a risk factor and disability in the post-pandemic scenario, after postural problems and musculoskeletal disorders, which follow the head (63%).

Pandemic absenteeism 1700 million hours work lost companies

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The new life of the world's oldest hydropower plant “ " We make more money from bitcoin mining than selling electricity”

It opened in 1897 and is, says Jim Besha Sr, CEO of Albany Engineering Corp. (owner of the Mechanicville Hydroelectric Power Plant), the world's oldest operating renewable energy facility. It keeps generating electricity, but it adapts to the times and has just entered the bitcoin mining business.

The company, which still uses all the original machinery of the nineteenth century, they explain in Times Union, earns 3 cents per kilowatt / hour with the sale of energy. Mining cryptocurrencies gets 3 times more profit. ” We make more money with bitcoin than generating electricity and we do it with renewable energy, " explains Besha, who makes it clear that they have not left the main function of the plant, but they are simply using some of the energy to mine this cryptocurrency and, for this, they are buying used servers.

The story of the Mechanicville Hydroelectric Plant, very close to Albany (the capital of New York State), is a tale of deception, struggle and survival. In 1986, National Grid, then owner of the power plant, asked Albany Engineering Corp., to recondition and operate the plant. They were advised, says Besha, to maintain the old structure (the only upgrades had taken place in 1915), with the promise that they would rent the plant and buy the energy from them for 40 years.

They began to generate power, which they were selling to National Grid-always as commented by the executive director at Times Union– below the market price, which was what was agreed in the contract. At the same time, Albany began the process of obtaining an independent license that would allow them to operate the plant.

In 1993 they got the permit and, at that time, Besha asserts, “National Grid called me and said ‘we're not going to honor the contract, if you don't like it, take us to court.’” The goal, it seems, was to demolish the plant. This was prevented by a cunning move by Besha, who, upon arriving at the plant in 1986, included it in the National Register of Historic Places. Albany sued National Grid. They stopped buying power and Mechanicville eventually stopped operating in 1993.

During the time it was unused, part of the building flooded and a generator caught fire. Finally, and after a long judicial process, National Grid decided to forget its intention to end the power plant and reached an agreement to pay for the repairs, as well as the energy produced at market price.

In August 2003, 10 years later, Albany returned to the plant and, within 30 days, managed to get it up and running. ” It was an act of love, " says Besha. With this, with bitcoin mining and, above all, thanks to the Register of Historic Places, Mechanicville continues to operate in its third century of life.