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2.12 Archaeologists’ Sick Absences

Latest Data: 2020

This page expores the recorded sickness absences of UK professional archaeologists in 2019-20.

Highlights

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For the first time, in the 2019-20 Profiling the Profession survey, data were collected on archaeologists’ sickness absences. This information was collected from the individuals’ survey – see the methods section for more details on the Profiling the Profession data collection methods. The data collection was designed to align with the Department for Work and Pensions’ Health and wellbeing at work: survey of employees, so that there would be comparable UK results.

Archaeologists had higher rates of sickness absences from work than the overall UK working population. This was driven by a higher number of less than a week of sick absences.

Table 2.12.1: Sickness absence for archaeologists, UK and construction sector workforce. UK and Construction sector data from Health and wellbeing at work: survey of employees, Construction numbers only had greater than two weeks.

Sickness absence Archaeologists UK Construction Sector
Count % % %
no sickness absence 476 49% 58% 62%
up to one week 390 40% 30% 24%
up to two weeks 70 7% 6% 3%
up to four weeks 27 3% 3% 5%
more than four weeks 45 5% 5%
Total 963

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Correlations

Warning: As discussed in the methods, ‘statistically significant results’ means nothing more than these results are worthy of further investigation. The low r-values are not ‘proof’.

The analysis of the survey variables (see methods section) highlighted several correlations between sickness absences and other variables. There is a correlation between age and not taking sick leave. Those in their 60s and over are less likely to have taken any sick leave in the preceding year.

Table 2.12.2: Sickness absence for professional archaeologists by age.

Age no sickness absence up to one week 1-2 weeks 2+ Weeks Total
Count % Count % Count % Count % Count
30 and under 59 42% 55 39% 14 10% 10 7% 140
31-40 106 38% 128 46% 22 8% 22 8% 279
41-50 116 47% 102 41% 14 6% 12 5% 246
51-60 113 52% 72 33% 15 7% 19 9% 219
61+ 64 67% 19 20% 5 5% 6 6% 95
Total (n=) 458 376 70 69 979

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Another correlation was by sub-sector of archaeological work; those archaeologists working in museums/visitor attractions were significantly less likely to have taken a sickness absence in the last year.

Table 2.12.3: Sickness absence for professional archaeologists by sub-sector of job.

no sickness absence sickness absence
Contractor 180 41% 258 59%
Local Heritage Management 49 42% 68 58%
Consultancy 63 49% 62 48%
National Heritage Agency 51 48% 55 52%
Museum or Heritage/Cultural Attraction 42 71% 17 29%
Academia 53 63% 31 37%
Public Archaeology 23 45% 28 55%
All 461 47% 519 53%

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Respondents on zero-hour contracts were more likely to not have sick absences. It could be that the respondents do not work often enough to take sick leave or they could feel that their work is too precarious to take sick leave. It could be that there is another variable causing this, which is related to who are the people that have zero-hour contracts and to those that don’t take sick absences. All of this can only be speculation at this point and can not be determined by the limited data gathered for the survey; this is an area that warrants further investigation.

Table 2.12.4: Sickness absence for professional archaeologists by contract type.

Contract type no sickness absence sickness absence of up to one week sickness absence of more than a week
permanent contract 335 44% 313 41% 103 14%
zero hours 38 62% 9 15% 13 21%
fixed term 54 52% 39 38% 11 11%

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Pay and Sick Absences

An area that appeared to show correlations was pay, with the groups earning under £20,000 and those earning over £40,000 taking less sick absences. However, this appears to be the result of some older individuals working part-time or undertaking semi-retired work. When normalizing pay by full-time equivalent – e.g. if everyone worked 37.5 hours per week – the correlation disappears and there is no relationship between pay and sick absences.

Image Credit

The excavation of Trench 1 during the 2014 fieldwork. In Sygrave, J. (2016). Whitehawk Camp: The impact of a modern city’s expansion on a neolithic causewayed enclosure, and a reassessment of the site and its surviving archive. Sussex Archaeological Collections 154. Vol 154, pp. 45-56. https://doi.org/10.5284/1085725. ADS terms of use.

Version control and change log

As a digital document we may update parts of this page in the future to account for corrections or the need for clarification. Please use the version when citing:

Version: 1.0

Change log: no changes

CREDITS

Title: Profiling the Profession

2020 Authors: Kenneth Aitchison, Poppy German and Doug Rocks-Macqueen

Published by: Landward Research Ltd

Version Date: 2021

ISBN: 978-0-9572452-8-0

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14333387

License: CC BY SA 4.0 for all text and figures. Header images are from different sources check image credits for their specific licensing.

2020 funders: Historic England, with support from Historic Environment Scotland, CIfA and FAME.

Questions about Profiling the Profession: enquiries@landward.eu