Employers are seeing a significant rise in absenteeism, alongside an increase in sick notes certifying workers “unfit” to attend the office but fit to work from home, according to a HR firm.Damien McCarthy, founder and chief executive of consultancy firm HR Buddy, said his team is currently dealing with managing absenteeism in workplaces “every day”.Noting that employees have been entitled to five days of sick pay per year since January 2024, he believes this may “naturally” be resulting in a spike in sick leave in “most workplaces”.However, McCarthy says absenteeism is now turning into “long-term” sick leave in many cases, which is often going unchecked by employers, potentially due to management apprehension.“There’s a lack of confidence which we do observe from an awful lot of line managers. They’re frightened to deal with it,” he said.This is largely due to a lack of confidence on behalf of management, he believes, “because they’re afraid it’s going to end up in the WRC [Workplace Relations Commission]”. “This perceived threat that the absent employee is perhaps ‘dangerous’, or management feel they need to tiptoe around the issue because they think they’ll end up in the WRC and they’ll be wrong, is very much a culture that exists in Irish business,” he said.[ Getting a sick note isn’t as easy as it used to beOpens in new window ]The ongoing drive to return to the office is also potentially contributing to the rise in absenteeism, he said, describing a level of “insecurity” in attending the office, alongside an ongoing “battle for remote-working rights”.Also on the rise this year are medical certs from GPs certifying workers “unfit” to attend the office, but fit to work from home, McCarthy said.“We’ve seen several of these,” he said, describing the certs as “unreasonable” and “nonsensical”.“If you’re not fit to be in a workplace, how are you fit to work from home? It’s unworkable in an awful lot of job roles and in an awful lot of organisations,” he said.Employers should be involving their company doctors and occupational health teams “much earlier” in such cases, alongside for general absenteeism, he said, to assess and potentially accommodate those absent from work or the office.“It’s not for HR or a line manager to try and ascertain and understand someone’s medical needs or how you can accommodate them in a workplace. That advice has to be taken from a medical professional,” he said.If you have work-related questions, from how to deal with burnout to running your own business, The Irish Times Work Q&A column is here to help. You can use the form below to submit your question. Please limit your submissions to 400 words or less and please include a phone number. Your name and contact details will be confidential and only be used for verification purposes. Any details about your employer will also be anonymised.