Employee absences on Mondays almost double those on Fridays
08 July 2016
New statistics released by ELAS Business Support show the absentee rate for the first half of this year - and they make for interesting reading. 8,550 people from 68 companies across the UK were surveyed.
These new figures show that Mondays are consistently blue with the absentee rate almost double that of Fridays (1832 compared to 1046) across the first half of the year. The Boomtown Rats don't like Mondays and, it appears, UK workers don't either. 21.4% of all employees surveyed called in sick on a Monday compared with just 12.2% on Fridays. May had two bank holidays so, unsurprisingly, was the only month where Monday did not have the highest number of absences.
Hunter S Thompson famously described it as ‘the cruellest month' and it appears that UK workers agree; February had the highest average rate of absenteeism across the first half of the year. An average of 337 people a week called in sick during February, compared to 318 in March, 314 in June, 294 in January, 283 in May and 282 in April.
National Sickie Day (1st Feb) lived up to its name with the highest number of people (95) absent from work, closely followed by Mon 22nd Feb (92). 86 people were absent on 16th May and 6th June while a total of 80 people called out from work on 18th January (Blue Monday).
April shows up as the healthiest month with the lowest number of absences recorded across the board.
David Southall is a consultant at ELAS specialising in employment law. He says: "Employers should ensure they have robust return to work procedures in place, part of which should be to discuss in detail the reason why an employee was absent. Should a health issue be suggested, the employer could follow up by seeking to obtain a medical report; this will reveal whether or not the employee is properly addressing any underlying medical condition. Notes from all return to work meetings should be retained in case they need to be referred back to at future meetings with the same employee."