Sick days have nearly doubled in six years
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/sick-days-have-nearly-doubled-in-six-years-qdsm553fm
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
by TimesandSundayTimes
49 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.
I was going to read this article but unfortunately I am too ill to do so, maybe tomorrow.
I’ve known plenty of people at past work places that used sick days as additional holiday . If a company says 2 weeks paid sick these people will take that as days they should take off in a year whether they are ill or not . Usually ill on Mondays and Fridays oddly
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.
Increasing retirement age won’t have helped.Im intending having a lot more sick days in my last year. Starting to get stick from manager now for not keeping up with younger colleagues.Have struggled through with arthritis for years but not any more . Gonna take it easy.
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.
In addition to the likes of Covid, I don’t think I’m too far off the mark with stating it’s also the abundance of shit food, cheap carbs, seed oils, not enough quality protein (fuck off with your plant shite) and fuck all exercise.
My work incentivised attendance by giving you an extra day holiday every quarter if you haven’t had a sick day. To the surprise of absolutely no one attendance is better than it’s ever been.
It’s also very easy to see why people take time off sick so frequently. In my first job as a teenager (retail) I asked to not work weekends, qué my manager scheduling me in every single weekend but not himself or the people he was friends with. After a year of working them and being ignored I magically didn’t feel well around 8pm on a Friday.
Good. The amount of time I got sick from heroes trying to maintain their perfect attendance record is ridiculous.
Honestly, since covid I just can’t get back on my feet. I went 10+ year without a sick day in work now it just seems every other week I’ve caught something or other.
I wonder if there was some kind of large medical crisis, perhaps a global one, which may have impacted these stats?
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.
When employers expect miracles and performance standards against a computer statistic and then further abuse from employers not looking after their staff efficiently (as in yearly health check ups for example)
Then of course Staff sickness is going to be high
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…
My hybrid working company literally outlined that when ill you aren’t to work from home. Increasing the number we have seen
We’re sick of this shit. My wage hasn’t gone up in 6 years, though my responsibilities have. I’m working harder for less.
Companies caring about their staff, rather than forcing them in to the office at death’s door
It feels kind of obvious to me that sick days have doubled over a period of time that included a pandemic.
Our mental health seems to be pretty bad at the moment too, that can’t be helping.
Every corporation’s obsession with unlimited but unsustainable growth is fucking stressful.
Everyone’s working harder for less pay and living more miserable lives. There’s gonna be a lot more people getting sick.
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’
Oh I wonder if it’s anything to do with them slashing the number of holiday people are entitled to?
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.
I’ve not really taken any sick days since WFH became a thing. Even if I’m mildly ill I’ll just work from home and it’s a non issue.
If I had to commute while ill or sit in the office while ill I would absolutely have taken that time off though.
I would rather sick people stay home. They will just make others sick and not everyone’s immune system can overcome an infection at the same speed.
Where I work, you are allowed 3 periods of absence before you hit a trigger. So I could have 4 separate days off in year and I would hit a trigger but I can have 2 separate periods of illness that last a week each (10 days) and nothing is said.
Because of that, if I’m ever ill for a day you can bet your arse I’m taking the rest of the week off too.
My RTO office job has said if you are unwell you can’t have a WFH day, you have to take a sick day. Even if well enough to work but not handle commute or want extra sleep/rest time.
Has meant a double whammy of people taking sick days when could have WFH and more people coming into the office unwell, spreading germs and causing more people to take sick days.
I can understand the stance from a concern about ppl working when they should be resting but it’s just caused more people to be off work or not working efficiently at the office and causing a cascade of illness. Flexibility is needed. And it has caused a LOT of ill-will towards HR. I have never heard so much disgruntled talk in my whole working life against HR policies.
I’m getting paid much the same as I was in 2010 and can’t live the same quality of life as my pensioner parents. If I’m not feeling good why would I drag myself in. Nobody thanks you anyway.
It’s not even just to do with work though. Mental health as a whole is dire and most of it is suffering from “shit life syndrome”.
You work for 40+ hours a week, struggle to make ends meet, everything is getting noticeably more and more expensive. If you’re young you probably didn’t make it onto the housing ladder and you’re stressed about losing your home and deposit at the whims of a greedy landlord. Bills and expenses are rising and yet your wages aren’t, at least not by enough. Luxuries and entertainment feel prohibitively priced too so people turn to alcohol, but the pub is too expensive so they drink at home without the social aspect. Nothing feels like it’s changing and every day you’re bombarded by more shit about the world. Russia-Ukraine crisis, Israel-Palestine crisis, climate change. It’s a lot for anyone to handle so of course it boils over and affects people’s work, not to mention that most people see no tangible benefit to their job so why not take that sick day?
This isn’t just a UK problem, it’s a global phenomenon:
[Yes, Everyone Really Is Sick a Lot More Often After Covid](https://archive.is/S2Slv)
> At least 13 communicable diseases, from the common cold to measles and tuberculosis, are surging past their pre-pandemic levels in many regions, and often by significant margins
Even mild cases of COVID can persist in the body for months after symptoms subside. There’s evidence that repeat COVID infections damage the immune system. The continuing circulation of COVID is damaging the health of millions, and everyone is just sticking their head in the sand. The pandemic never went away. It’s criminal nothing is being done about it.
My wife worked in childcare and got 5 sick days in a rolling 12 month period…I work in an office and have 3 months full pay and 3 months half pay covering 3 years, then it increases more.
Anyone who was sick at the nursery would get bullied into coming back in or made to feel horrible about it. We’ve eventually discovered she had sinusitis causing repetitive infections, which in an environment like a nursery wasn’t unsurprising.
Luckily she’s now left for an office job, so hopefully the sick leave will be better.
Reality persists even if we are encouraged to pretend covid went away