In 1979 Bob Geldof complained that "I don’t like Mondays". So many people agreed with him that he went to the top of the charts.
The fourth monday in January is “Blue Monday" and as such should be disliked above all other days because it has been declared the most depressing day of the year due to a combination of factors including the weather (likely torrential rain is hardly uplifting), level of debt (after Christmas spending), time since Christmas and early failure to keep New Year’s resolutions. To deepen the gloom, 2011 was already behind in the smile stakes because the Prime Minister said in his Christmas message that this would be the year of “heavy-lifting”. To add insult to injury there will still be 96 days to go until the next public holiday (Good Friday on 22 April). As such, it is no wonder that many may prefer to stay under the duvet today rather than venture outside.
Now that Blue Monday is into its sixth year there is a danger that it’s growing notoriety and reputation become a self-fulfilling prophecy causing employee attendance levels today to plummet. Staff absences already have a huge impact on employers and the economy. In 2009 there were 180 million sick days that cost employers more than £16 billion. Fake sick days or “sickies” make up around 15% of total sick days meaning that “pulling a sickie” happens 27 million times a year and costs the country £2.4 billion.
As such, the prospect of increased absences on Blue Monday is not an attractive one. But can employers do anything to combat this?
- Because employees can “self-certify” their absence for up to seven days, (i.e. they do not need to provide a doctor’s note to confirm illness), “sickies” can be hard to identify unless employees are caught out, e.g. they are spotted out and about rather than being ill in bed or they make careless posts to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter that make it clear that they are not ill. If there is a suspicion of a sickie then the usual disciplinary procedure should be followed meaning that the matter must be fully investigated before any disciplinary sanction is imposed.
- Reminding staff of their obligations under your sickness absence policy, including reporting requirements and sanctions for fake absences, is a useful way to give staff the message that you are keeping an eye on absence levels. Holding “back to work interviews” when staff return from illness is a useful tactic because the thought of a formal meeting to explain absence can be enough to reduce absence to genuine illness only.
- Employees whose absence levels are higher than usual but whose absences are short term (i.e. odd days here and there) are tricky to deal with unless absence records are kept, monitored and used proactively. The Bradford Factor, which measures disruption caused by short, frequent and unplanned absences, is a powerful and easy way to highlight serial absentees because the higher the Bradford score the more disruption is caused. Ideally employers should set benchmarks (whether in number of days absent or using a Bradford score) so that staff know that when they exceed that benchmark they will be subject to a formal absence management process.
- Employers could also embrace Blue Monday by expressly acknowledging the concept and taking steps to encourage staff to attend, perhaps by announcing tasty tea-time snacks or by emailing staff suggestions to alleviate their gloom, e.g. arranging lunch with a customer or colleague. Some employers may feel that this option is unnecessary and “soft” but there is clearly value in any attempt to lift staff morale.
Paul Gaff is Partner at Thomas Eggar LLP
