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A third check their work emails outside the office

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January 9th, 2015


This article is more than 9 years old.

About a third of Danes check their work email during their free time at least once a day, according to a study carried out by Epinion for DR Nyheder.

Bo Netterstrøm, a stress consultant and senior researcher at the department of occupational and environmental medicine at Bispebjerg Hospital, was not surprised by the findings. “It’s an expression of what we call unbounded work,” he said.

“That you’re actually also at work in your free time – if nothing else, then in your thoughts and in your behaviour.”

According to Netterstrøm, the extent of the phenomenon varies significantly from one profession to the next. He told DR Nyheder that in some sectors checking email from home will be the norm.

“In the knowledge-intensive sectors, such as journalists, doctors or other professions where you are in contact with a lot of people in the course of a long working day, it will be the case for many people that they actually experience this constantly,” he said.

Price of flexibility?
Lars Qvistgaard, a senior consultant at the professional organisation DJØF, told DR the phenomenon was linked to the flexibility that many employees have in the workplace, but that it was not without dangers. “It’s a sign of flexibility, where you can try to get things to hang together,” he said.

“But on the other hand, it’s a problem because you risk working too long, not taking time off and having the necessary breaks that you also need in your professional life.”


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”