This study examined the problem of employee absenteeism in the hotel industry in Italy and Switzerland. Absenteeism is not simply not being present for work. Rather, absenteeism is not being present for work for an extended period of time. Tardiness, idleness, and early leaving are adjuncts to absenteeism. For purposes of this study, tardiness was defined as reporting late for assigned work up to one hour, while idleness was defined as being away from one's assigned work station up to one hour after having reported for work, and early leaving was defined as departing one's assigned work station up to one hour prior to the scheduled time of leaving. Absenteeism, thus, in this research, was defined as being away from one's assigned work station for any period in excess of one hour for any unauthorized reason. Absenteeism, to varying degrees, is a problem involving all classes of workers professionals, white collar workers, and blue collar workers. The only group of workers where absenteeism is not a major problem is among the self employed and individual proprietor group, where absence from work usually leads quickly to financial ruin. Human resources represent a continual problem for the hotel industry. The inflow of immigrants as guest workers into the industrialized economies of Western Europe over the past several decades has provided the hotel industry with a steady supply of low cost workers. In many instances, however, absentee problems involving these guest workers has proved to be far more
significant than those involving domestic work forces. Rising wages and living standards in the industrialized economies of Western Europe, however, have priced most domestic workers out of the hotel industry labor pool in these economies.
Many problems exist for the hotel industry in Western Europe with respect to the recruitment of personnel from countries other than the industrial economies of the region. In add...