Most people in employment spend 60% of their waking hours at work. Yet there is only limited appreciation of the potential role of the workplace in promoting people's health and wellbeing. This was the conclusion of Working for a Healthier Tomorrow, the review by Dame Carol Black. The review centred on improving support at work for employees at risk of becoming sick and perhaps losing their jobs. Despite growing evidence that work can be good for health, Black said, "much of the current approach to the treatment of people of working age, including the sickness certification process, reflects an assumption that illness is incompatible with being in work". According to the CBI, the employers' organisation, it accounts for 175m lost working days every year or seven days for each employee. Noting that as many as one in four employers had no sickness absence management policy whatsoever, Black said: "Tackling stigma around ill-health and disability will be key to enabling more people with health conditions to find work and stay in work."
The Guardian