28 May 2008, London – New research unveiled today shows that workers in Greater London take on average twice as many ‘fake’ sick days as the national average.
A third of London workers (33 per cent) admit to phoning in sick when they are not in fact physically ill, on a regular basis – 12 per cent pulling a sickie at least three times a year. This contrasts with a far more resilient national average of just 19 per cent pulling a sickie regularly and six per cent doing so at least three times a year.
The North West is the most hardy region with an impressive 68 per cent of employees never phoning in sick when they are not.
Market researcher TNS has unveiled the finding as part of its ‘Britain at work’ study – which examines UK employees’ attitudes to work. The data also reveals what Brits see as reasonable excuses for phoning in under the pretence of sickness – which includes a hangover, looking for another job and even bad weather.
More Londoners than people anywhere else in the country see a hangover as a fair reason to call in sick – with 12 per cent saying this is a valid reason compared with just 4 per cent in Wales and the North East. Relationship issues also rank high, with 45 per cent of workers in the capital seeing this as a good reason to stay away from work.
Ironically, despite the infamous London commute, people here are less likely to use transport problems as a reason not to go to work – with 11 per cent approving of this excuse compared with 21 per cent in Wales and 18 per cent in Scotland. And one in three workers across the UK sees stress as a reasonable excuse for a sickie.
“We have seen a steady increase in employers taking practical measures to curb ‘sickies’ – and these figures show there is a real need for this,“ says Gemma Camp, Head of Stakeholder Management at TNS. “But rather than just coming down hard on employees, businesses need to introduce better incentives for high attendance and seek to identify what it is that drives people to call in sick. Employee engagement is more important than ever – we know that higher levels of engagement result in lower levels of absenteeism. So, monitoring levels of employee engagement and understanding how to improve it is absolutely vital to business success.”
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Note to editor
TNS surveyed a sample of 1,000 people aged 16-24, representative of the British population, between 22nd and 24th April 2008.
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