Hands up everyone who threw a ’sickie’ today. According to reports, up to 400,000 UK workers may have called in sick today, just to get a day off.
I must admit I’ve been missing out on ‘National Sickie Day‘ – which apparently falls on the first Monday in February. This is the day when the highest number of workers are said to call in sick.
Mind you, with the weekend weather being pretty bad in parts of the country some people will have found getting to work today quite difficult – if not impossible in a few cases.
Business advisers ELAS estimate that sick day absences today may have cost the economy as much as £34 million in salary, reduced productivity and lost opportunities.
It seems that some employers now accept text or email messages from staff advising that they are too ill to come to work. This, I guess, makes it easier for people to pull a sickie as they don’t have to speak direct to their manager or boss on the phone to explain their absence.
As ever, there is another side to this story. It seems that while the number of people suspected of calling in sick continues to grow, the actual number of days they are taking off work is falling, as managers are becoming more effective at managing staff absence.
If you really do want to throw a sickie, there is plenty of advice on the ‘net about the best way to go about it. But beware – most are very tongue in cheek, so if you take up suggestions such as acting sick at work be ready for the consequences. You might find yourself having to explain your stunt to a very unsympathetic medic at your local A&E!
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