Sicknote season hits Britain

Employers beware! Research from fish4jobs, the UKís largest recruitment website, reveals a staggering 80% of the countryís workforce admit to pulling a ësickieí on a regular basis. In fact, ëSicknote Britsí are particularly prone to faking it at this time of year as the 24th October ñ 1st November period marks the longest stretch that we work continuously without having a bank holiday to look forward to.

The fish4jobs.co.uk survey also highlights the top five, often scandalous, reasons that we offer our employers when validating our sickies:

1. ìItís my granddad, he was so oldÖî ñ unashamedly lying about a death in the family

2. ìIím seeing stars and stripes everywhereÖî - claiming a hangover is actually a migraine

3. ìItís all the rage in Halkidiki at the momentÖî - claiming to have caught a foreign disease while on holiday

4. ìLife will never be the same without Buster the dogÖî - pretending a beloved family pet has died

5. ìThe roof has just collapsed on meÖî ñ producing spectacularly untrue DIY disaster stories

Out of the fish4jobs survey respondents, over a third (38%) revealed they took a sickie to recover from a session down the pub the night before, one in five skip the working day to attend a job interview and 17% ditch work for a doctorís appointment. Whatís more, a cheeky one in five prefer to take an ëunofficialí long weekend by tagging a sickie onto a bank holiday.

Joe Slavin, CEO of fish4, comments, ìWe all know Brits work the longest hours in Europe and itís clear from the survey that workers are resorting to pulling a sickie for all sorts of reasons. Employers need to take serious note and look for ways of tackling the Sicknote Culture thatís sweeping the UK. We at fish4jobs have a CEO Day, whereby our staff are given an extra day off at Christmas time to help stop people taking a seasonal sickie!

Joe adds, ìTactics such as allowing a ëduvet dayí, encouraging a job share scheme or installing more ëworking from homeí time are all strategies that more UK employers need to adopt in order to help provide employees with a valid reason to take a last minute day off that is strictly by the book.î

Finally, whilst sickies are currently ëen vogueí in Britain, many of us should beware as the survey reveals over a third (38%) have caught a colleague enjoying a day trip out when they should have been tucked up in bed with a tummy bug!