If you decided to throw a sickie last Monday, you were probably not alone.
Even before the snow blanketed many parts of the country last weekend, research from ELAS suggested that Monday February 6th was the day Brits were most likely to phone in sick and snuggle back under the duvet. Whilst wintry weather was a factor, commuting in the dark, credit card bills and the long wait until the Easter holidays all contributed to the lack of enthusiasm for work.
The good news for businesses is that the faltering economy has encouraged employees to reduce the number of fake sickness days they take. The majority of staff now only absent themselves from the office for one day.
ELAS’ head of employment law, Peter Mooney, said the employment law consultants had been closely monitoring absenteeism for some years. A significant number of skivers take two days off to make their sickness appear more believable. However, over the past year, that trend seems to have stopped as the struggling economy forced managers to clamp down on absenteeism.
Mooney went on to say that there appears to be a steady increase in the number of people who throw a sickie, but the length of absence is decreasing. ELAS estimated that 400,000 workers in the UK would be ‘sick’ this past Monday.
You would think that people would be grateful to have a job and would do everything to retain it, but the ELAS research has shown that is not true. With all the doom and gloom surrounding the country at the moment, people seem to think they are entitled to the perk of an occasional day off work, Mooney concluded.
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Image: bed time [DILO] by striatic
