2010/07/23 by Tarja Heponiemi, Marko Elovainio, Jaana Pentti +6 · 1 citation
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Workplace Health and Well-being #Employment and Welfare Studies #Retirement, Disability, and Employment
paper · doi:10.1097/jom.0b013e3181ec7e23
openalex publication_date 2010/07/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
OBJECTIVE: We examined the associations of contractual job insecurity (fixed-term vs permanent employment contract) and subjectively assessed job insecurity with sickness presenteeism among those who had no sickness absences during the study year. METHODS: Survey data from a sample of 18,454 Public sector employees were gathered in 2004 (the Finnish Public Sector study). RESULTS: Fixed-term employees were less likely to report working while ill (odds ratio = 0.88, 95% confidence interval = 0.77 to 0.99) than permanent employees. Subjective insecurity was associated with higher levels of working while ill, and this association was stronger among older employees. These results remained after adjustments for demographics, health-related variables, and optimism. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that subjective job insecurity might be even more important than contractual insecurity when a public sector employee makes the decision to go to work despite feeling ill.