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HEALTH WARNING

2nd September 2004
Page 9
Page 9, 2nd September 2004 — HEALTH WARNING
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

People who skive off work make Brian Weatherley sick. And as for people being given bonuses just for staying healthy...

Is it just me, or are you also somewhat bemused by the recent news stones that a number of prominent UK companies are considering paying their staff a bonus for not being off sick?

It's clearly an emotive subject, but throwing a sickie when you're not actually iil isn't big and it isn't clever. And it isn't somethinglwas taught to do. I find the thought of lying about my health to get time off quite simply repugnant.

That's probably because I'm one of the thousands of guilt-ridden workaholics in road transport (you can throw in paranoid, toobut even paranoid people have enemies).

Still, there are plenty of worse things to be. I may not have my worMife balance sorted (who does?), but I'm proud to say I've never dumped on workmates by playing hockey. If nothing else, that should be enough to deter most people from this. However, I'm also old-fashioned enough to believe that the relationship with my employers is as much a moral as a legal one. They're paying roe to work, not to disappear round the back of the metaphorical bike-sheds.

So why do people do it? I've heard just about every excuse under the sun, from too much the night before if you can't do the time, don't do the crime -to being under intense stress and pressure at work. Certainly any company that suffers from high absenteeism needs to ask itself "What are we doing (or not clang) that could be causing it?" Pressurising staff is a lose/ lose game. If companies can't see that, they deserve all the absenteeism they get.

As a colleague quite rightly reminded me recently, we all have 365 sick days. I assume he meant that someone who is ill is justifiably entitled to take sick leave anytime, any day of the year. Who'd argue with that?

1 just can't see the logic of rewarding those who've been bunking off simply for turning up while, every day, genuinely sick people are crawling into work when they should be tucked up in bed, not in the office or canteen sharing their microbes with colleagues.

Can you? Harrumph.

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