Up and about, are you? Off to work? Congratulations! Tens of thousands are not, according to a sorrowful report from the employment law consultant Peter Mooney. The first Monday in February is apparently the peak day for employees calling in sick, many of them fraudulently. It’s dark and chilly; Christmas debt still hurts, Easter is far away. So in come the calls, croaking and faint even if only claiming a sprained knee, and down goes productivity.
The story about National Sickie Day recurs every year, with the diligent Mr Mooney crunching the latest trends. The CBI avers that 12 per cent of absence is for faked reasons (some put it far higher, up to half), and that sickies amount to 21 million days and £1.6 billion lost every year (again, that is among the more moderate figures).
Fake poorliness rises by 20 per cent during leading sporting fixtures, and is highest in the public sector: NHS employees and social care workers typically take off more than twelve days each a year, and police and probation officers just under ten (hotel and restaurant workers in the private sector take fewer than five).
Mondays and Fridays remain the most popular days for skiving, which frankly shows a woeful lack of imagination; and apart from the public/private divide, the rule seems to be that the bigger the organisation and the more monotonous the work, the more it happens. Call centres are noted for it.
Times Online