Affiliations: Regional Social Insurance office in Kalmar, Box 763,
SE-391 27 Kalmar, Sweden | School of Health Sciences, Department of
Rehabilitation, Jönköping, Sweden
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Anita Björklund, School of
Health Sciences, Department of Rehabilitation, Box 1026, SE-551 11
Jönköping, Sweden. Tel.: +46 36 101265; Fax: +46 33 269706, E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore from an
environmental perspective the experiences of returning to work of former
unemployed sickness absentees. Five separate focus-group interviews were
carried out with themes concerning different environmental areas. The findings
showed that the participants in their process of being off work and then
attempting returning to work experienced a personal transition manifesting
itself as a negative self-image, change of life-rhythm and restrictions in
their roles and activities. In their progression, the participants experienced
a need for reorientation and expressed feelings of alienation, and for that
reason felt need of support from a network, especially a professional one.
Regarding attitudes in society, the participants reported experiences of social
stigmatization, both in mass media and in their immediate social environment,
and an increasing egocentricity among their fellow-workers. They perceived
their progression back to work as a 'time quarantine' and as a long and
destructive wait for support. The findings indicate that the phenomenon of
'returning to work' after unemployment and sick leave could not be reduced to a
single issue. It should rather be seen as a dynamic problem with individual and
structural, environmental aspects.
Keywords: Attitudes, coherence, focus group, former unemployed, vocational rehabilitation, personal transition, reorientation, sick-listed absentees, time
