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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the associations of employees’ attitudes and human resource arrangements to sickness absence from the perspective of absence culture and work ability.

The study was conducted in one of the largest food industry companies in Finland. Sickness absence register data were obtained from the years 2003 to 2005 and a survey from 2005. This survey included single propositions about work arrangements (five propositions) and attitudes (three propositions) during sickness absence. These were analysed by absence days and short (1‐7 days) and long spells (>7 days).

The attitude of blue‐collar workers who agreed that it is a matter of course that someone is absent was statistically significant regarding sickness absence. They had increased risk for sickness absence days and for short spells. From work arrangements during absence the fact that jobs will wait returning to the workplace decreased the risk for short and long sickness absence spells in both groups. In addition, the fact that the employer will take a substitute during workmates’ absence increased the risk for all measured sickness absence rates among white‐collar workers.

These findings should be noted in enterprises’ human resource management and occupational health services to manage and understand sickness absence.

Although sickness absence has been widely studied, very little is known about sickness absence related work arrangements and attitudes associated with sickness absence. This study increases knowledge about these issues.

This paper aims to examine the role of the spouse, specifically the husband, for the woman manager's career by focusing on the gender role construction between spouses, and the relationship of these roles to the woman's career.

The topic was investigated within a Finnish context by analyzing the narratives of 29 female managers. A common feature among the women was their managerial position and extensive work experience. All the women had or had had one or more spouses in the course of their careers, and all but one were mothers, mostly of teenage or adult children.

A typology distinguishing five types of spouses was constructed: determining, supporting, instrumental, flexible, and counterproductive. The results suggest that fluidity in gender roles between spouses is associated with the woman manager's sense of success and satisfaction in her career compared with more conventional gender role construction. It seems that traditional gender roles between spouses can be one reason for women's difficulties in attaining (top) managerial positions in Finland.

The study contributes to the prior literature concerning the work‐family relationship by extending research into an area so far overlooked: namely, the role of the spouse in relation to the woman manager's career. The study calls into question the straightforward and unequivocal view of the family – so typical in discussions about work‐family issues – by showing the many different meanings that women managers attach to one of the family members.