‘Pulling a sickie’, or taking a day off work for reasons other than genuine illness, is crippling business in the UK, with up to £9bn lost a year, according to a recent study.
Apparently, the main reason for phoning in sick is having a hangover, presumably disguised as migraine or stomach complaints, while some have taken days off through sheer boredom or to prolong a weekend, but the odd person has claimed to have been attacked by ants or even kidnapped!
However, the survey did not take unpaid overtime into account when calculating the cost to business nor whether the person who went sick worked harder when they got back to work.
It did suggest though that workers in the UK took more time off sick than those in the US or East Asia but less time off than employees in Central or Eastern Europe. Again, the figures don’t differentiate from false or genuine illness.
However, even watered down, the annual figure lost to productivity is still eye-watering, particularly in smaller firms where the absence of even one worker can make all the difference.
Employers need to watch for regular absences through ‘sickness’, as the survey also found that a common reason for pulling is a sickie is when employees have an interview, which is becoming more prevalent as the economic recovery feeds through to the jobs market.
The introduction of flexible working may help with this problem but employers could also look at the economics of improving working conditions for their staff, in a bid to keep them, such as offering them a ‘duvet day’ a year or televising important sporting fixtures, such as the World Cup or Wimbledon, in the workplace.