Sick days have nearly doubled in six years
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/sick-days-have-nearly-doubled-in-six-years-qdsm553fm
Posted by TimesandSundayTimes
Sick days have nearly doubled in six years
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/sick-days-have-nearly-doubled-in-six-years-qdsm553fm
Posted by TimesandSundayTimes
24 Comments
Pretty sure some of my colleagues take habitual sick days without being sick. Like I’m not a stickler for attendance, it’s none of my business, but with the frequency it happens I’m suspicious.
For example, one colleague just happens to be sick *again* on the two hottest days of the year.
Covid made people realise you shouldn’t only take off the days were you are physically too ill to work, but also that it’s courteous to others to take off the entire time you are contagious. Hopefully this change in culture will lead to long-term health benefits and lower rates of infection.
Ageing workforce.
It’s getting older that does it.
I used to be up bright and early after a heavy night,
then I’d need a day to recover,
now I need two days.
Covid, an ever expanding mental health crises, and the absolute inability to see a medical professional early, when things are easily treated.
None of this is a surprise, and the cost to the countries GDP is far, far higher than the cost of actually fixing some of these issues.
Well, yeah. People used to go to work with colds. Covid is treated differently, even if they arent hit too hard with it. All in favour of people not spreading their germs round personally.
Think people are tired and worn out, so maybe taking more mental health days, rather than being off for the flu etc.
It’s not the system that allows people sick days that’s at fault, but rather that the health of the nation generally has deteriorated over the past 14 years, with austerity, NHS waiting lists, anxiety over cost of living, etc.
Statistics in this case are flawed we had nearly two years of people taking mandated two weeks of isolation in this period. Usually people would return to work when symptoms improve.
Would that be to do with the three year period where everyone got sick, then?
People feeling under a lot of pressure to perform every day at work, if you’re then feeling slightly under the weather you know you won’t function in a high pressure environment. If the work were less pressured/stressful you might just suck it up for the day because you know you’ll do the job ‘good enough’ without wearing yourself out.
I do wish companies who are setup for it allowed more flexibility around WFH arrangements when it comes to this. Many have gone hard on getting people into the office. However occasionally I wake up feeling bad with a bit of a cold, exasperated by public transport, then bring it into the office. I’d much prefer just to complete my work from home, benefiting myself and the business. I realise there’s a caveat because it means companies can use it to their advantage by getting people to WFH instead of taking sick days, but it just really needs a general common sense approach.
I’ve been off work so much this year due to illness. I’m never usually ill and I’ve been bed-ridden an annoying amount.
Anecdotal but I will say I pre-covid never took sick days. I always felt there was a stigma around it. Now I do but that amounts to less than a week per year total still.
My guess would be people who did take sicks days before are also taking more, and the overall focus on mental health in social discourse has most likely contributed.
I’m actually a bit surprised by this because I felt like with the rise in working from home and more flexibility, I’ve actually taken less days off sick. Sometimes with a cold it’s more the commuting and going into work that caused me to call in sick, I’m happy to work if I can do it from home feeling a bit under the weather. I’ve also pulled less sickies as I can relax a bit more on my work from home days and kind of skive off if I’m really not feeling mentally up to it.
Nothing to do with that virus that triggered a global pandemic, killed and disabled millions of people and is still in mass circulation? No?
We have 2M people at least with Long Covid in the UK. Tens of thousands of scientific peer reviewed research papers showing the health impact of repeat infections, including weakened immune systems and we still have people scratching their head confused and blaming everything but Covid on these findings.
This will continue to get worse.
If my pay has gone down in real terms over the last six years, you’d better believe I’m taking extra benefits where I can, whether it’s bonus holiday or stolen office supplies.
Not surprised. There’s no reward for hard work anymore, and almost no company is worth your effort, they treat you like minions.
COVID is the big one.
Also, I’m not sure if there is as much a new massive mental health crisis as there is now much more attention paid to mental health. Companies used to enjoy the benefit of employees showing up despite of mental suffering due to societal shame. That shame no longer exists amongst the younger generations.
What do you expect when we have/had:
Covid pandemic?
Mental health crises?
NHS waiting lists?
Lack of decent paying jobs?
And not wanting to work for pennys?
And **NONE** of these have anything to to with this is suppose?
In my completely uneducated opinion, I think people are less keen to work on in dedication for a company that cares little for them. If they’re sick, they’re staying home. Before COVID, if they were sick, they’d come in, power through in some misguided attempt at demonstrating loyalty. Except now, more people realise that being loyal to companies is never reciprocated when times get tough, so why bother?
Bring on the 4 day working week, and make Sunday a day of rest and meditation, a day to be, not to do.
It’s no wonder we are all stressed out and mentally unwell, whether we acknowledge it or live in denial.
Covid hasn’t gone away despite everyone’s best efforts to ignore it. 2 million with long covid…
One thing that I don’t see mentioned is that the employee – employer relationship must be having a big dip at the moment. The forced RTO and the absolute dismantling of the ’25 years and a gold watch’ mindset probably has people thinking ‘eh fuck this place, not coming in today’
Honestly I appreciate the culture change that has made taking a sick day more socially acceptable. The only benefit of COVID was that when people were infectious, THEY STAYED THE FUCK AT HOME.