75% go to work when they’re ill

18/09/2008

The nation’s employees are sacrificing their health for their careers, it has been suggested, after a survey found almost three quarters go to work feeling so ill ‘they could legitimately stay at home’.

In the last six months, two thirds of workers have gone to work when they should have been resting, while more than half have not taken any time off sick, the report by AXA PPP healthcare found.

Almost a third of the survey’s respondents said they did not want to let down their colleagues, while a quarter said they had too much work to do, and 15% said they were worried their sick leave records could be used against them by their employer.

One in five said they had used annual leave to take time off, with almost of third of these saying they had done this because they are not paid for sick days.

Dudley Lusted of AXA PPP healthcare, said it was ‘wrong’ to subject ‘hard-working people to over-zealous absence management methods.

“Smart employers will make sure their managers are properly trained and supported to manage attendance positively and, when people are off work when sick, concentrate on managing those employees whose attendance should give genuine cause for concern,” he said.

“Problems such as stress, anxiety and depression are the problems that should be setting off alarm bells. For these, early access to diagnosis and treatment is key to an early return to health – and back to work.”