ABSTRACT
The importance of low levels of psychological well-being as a possible indicator of stress has been pointed out by Nowack and as a forerunner of illness by Cox and Gotts. This chapter presents a case study on the effect of participation in a workplace employee fitness programme on absenteeism in a Dutch bank. The case study is based on an empirical investigation involving white-collar professional bank employees carried out by Kerr and Vos. The large increase in the non-exercising control group's absenteeism remains unexplained, but Shore et al. found a similar increase in control group absence in their employee fitness programmes (EFPs) study. In the present study, regular EFP participation had more influence on the rate of employee absence than did irregular participation. Absence rates were lower for non-EFP exercisers than for non-exercisers, but did increase slightly.
