Are Sick Days Good For Us?

According to some research, the very first Monday of every February is the most likely time for people to take a 'sickie'. At least 10% of us. The reason why is unclear, but it could be a mixture of post christmas blues as our credit card bills land on the doorstep, it's an age away before the next bank holiday and the miserable weather can get us down.

Many people feel that their statutory holidays plus bank holidays are not enough and they need to take more time out of work to recover or catch up, and still be paid for it. Despite the majority of sick days taken generally being genuine, the remainder tend to be an excuse to extend a weekend, suspiciously happen after a party the night before or seem to coincide with sporting events.

It may just seem like we are being a bit slack, but each year these sick days actually costs the economy over £13 billion which equates to 175 million working days. On average each employee took 7 days off sick in 2006, more than in 2005, so the trend indicates this figure will continue to grow.

For some reason, it seems to affect larger companies more so than smaller businesses, possibly indicating there is less of a moral incentive in a large place of work as opposed to a smaller run company, or maybe it is just too easy in a big, faceless company. Either way short term absences not only cost each business and the taxpayer money, but can unfairly load their work colleagues with extra work and more pressure.

Some companies will reward or praise those employees with a good attendance record whilst tackling those who appear to have the worst attendance overall. Other forward thinking companies have tried to come up with a solution, offering their employees up to 4 'duvet days' per year on top of their statutory holidays. These days can be used at any time throughout the year, and be for whatever reason - you could just be feeling a bit down in the dumps, suffering with a hangover or just need to catch up on sleep. This way the company can actually calculate it into their running costs, so effectively don't lose out.

It is important to find the solution that works best for your business and its workers. The worry is that we could end up with a culture of absenteeism being the norm. So next time you think about pulling a sickie, think again.