The first Monday in February is the day British employees are most likely to ring in sick. With dark, cold nights, credit card bills, financial worries and a long wait until the next holiday all contributing to the post-Christmas blues many disengaged employees opt for a duvet day rather than face another 8 hours at work.
In fact it is now so common that the first Monday in February (3rd Feb in 2014) has been dubbed ´National Sickie Day´.
There’s no doubt that most managers, myself included, would prefer that genuinely sick staff don’t come into work. If I can avoid the rest of my team coming down with the lurgy then I would prefer that team members stay at home until they are better rather than spreading their germs around the office.
However the HuffPost UK Lifestyle has reported that a large number of employees really do fake symptoms of illness. A survey of 10,000 adults revealed that nearly four in 10 employees (39%) have pulled a sickie because of a hangover and a third of employees (33%) have pulled a sickie just because they fancied a day off.
Managers are part of the problem too
Managers’ attitudes aren’t helping the situation; in fact they are making it easier for staff to get away with taking a duvet day. This is because more and more managers will now accept text messages and emails as confirmation that their staff are ill and will not be coming into work that day, rather than actually speaking to their employee.
This casual attitude towards absence management can mean that absenteeism flourishes in the business. And at a time when organisations of all sizes and across all sectors need to be looking to find ways of growing their business now the economy is starting to recover this culture of absence can be detrimental to both morale and productivity.
So what can we do?
‘National Sickie Day’ maybe a once a year phenomenon but it can highlight underlying problems. So managers and HR teams need to work together to address issues with employee absenteeism before it becomes a problem.
- Focus on boosting morale: Recognise the contribution your employees make to the team and the business by taking the time to thank them properly either by talking to them or writing them a personal note.
- Keep employees motivated and engaged: Offer your employees fresh challenges and opportunities to learn new skills or develop existing skills, for example, training courses, an opportunity to lead a project or a secondment to another department.
- Keep an eye on employee stress levels: Make sure that your employees have the right tools and skills to do their jobs and achieve the objectives you’ve set them, and help them with problem-solving if necessary.
And finally…
As a bit of light relief I conducted a completely unofficial poll amongst my colleagues by asking them, “What bizarre or unusual excuses for a day off have you heard about?”
These are some of the answers I received (in no particular order):
- I ate something dodgy and got food poisoning.
- My aunt died and I need to go to a funeral (again).
- The washing machine flooded the kitchen.
- I burned my hand in the toaster.
- I slipped on a coin.
- I split my trousers on the way into work.
- I hit my head on the weights machine at the gym.
- I can of soup fell out of the cupboard and landed on my foot.
- I’ve had a DIY hair dye disaster.
- I’ve hurt my thumb.
