Death of the great Australian sickie

Date
    July 17, 2013


Sickie article

This guy definitely deserves a sickie.

Like many, I worked through a nasty cold this winter (cue violins). No surprise there: no work means no pay and sadly, a day in bed to fight off a cold feels like an extravagance.

What does surprise is full-time workers foregoing sick-leave entitlements to “solider on” at work through a heavy cold, or work from home. As a friend quipped last week: “It’s impossible to take all my sick days – there’s simply no backup. The best I can hope for is a day working at home.”      

Such anecdotes are at odds with surveys showing Australians still take most of their 10 paid sick leave days allowed under the National Employment Standards.

A widely quoted survey of 112 companies by Direct Health Solutions, an absence-management company, last year found the national average absence level per worker was 8.75 days – about 30 per cent higher than UK sick-leave rates. If one believes the hype, the Great Australian Sickie is alive and well – flourishing, in fact, compared with rates in other developed nations.


I don’t buy it. For one thing, up to 40 per cent of the workforce these days is casual, contractors or employed through agencies. A growing chunk of the workforce has no paid leave entitlements, meaning sick leave is no option for those who need to work to get paid, or worry about losing shifts if they take time off. What happens when they get sick?

What’s your view?      

    Is it harder to take sick days than in years past?
    Do you go to work sick at least once a year?
    Is there back-up for you if you take a week or two of sick leave?
    Can you easily take sick leave to care for an unwell family member?
    Do you work from home if you are sick?
    Does work still call you, or email, if you are sick?

The Australian Council of Trade Union’s 2011 Working Australian Census presents a different perspective on the state of the sickie. Half of the sample (about 40,000 workers) attend work while sick or while someone they care for is sick, because they have too much work to do.

Over a quarter of survey respondents feel pressured by their boss to attend work while sick. About a quarter of younger workers go to work while sick because they worry they will not be offered a shift or other casual work if they do not show up to work because of illness. Sound familiar?      

But consultancies always talk up the problem of sickies for Australian business – presumably to win work through solving the problem. And the union movement highlights the plight of  many in the workforce who have no sick leave, or feel pressured if they take their full quota of days.

For once I’ll side with the unions. I don’t know many people who still tack on a sick day around a long weekend, regularly take “mental health” or “doona days”, or “chuck a sickie” to go skiing. I’m sure such people exist, but their numbers must be falling rapidly in a weakening labour market. I doubt any of these surveys reflect today’s marketplace.

My hunch is more people, concerned about job security, are reluctant to take their full quota of sick leave for themselves or to care for loved ones. When they do, it is for fewer days or includes working from home. With less back-up at work, they know that taking a sick day inevitably means more work for somebody else, or extra work for them when they return.      

Businesses, too, are often run so lean these days there is no back-up if somebody takes extended, unexpected sick leave. Under-pressure, managers expect staff to come to work – they might even subtly pressure workers to do so – because there are no replacements if several people go off sick.

Perhaps I am overstating the decline of the great Australian sickie, and underestimating that most of us still take at least a week or two sick leave each year – regardless of our true health.

My sense is many more people go to work sick these days, delay their recovery through lack of rest, infect fellow workers and customers, do a poor job because of illness, expose employers to lawsuits, and threaten their long-term health. Or they work from home over a laptop – pot of tea and chicken soup at hand – because there is nobody else to do their work.

What’s your view: has the great Australian sickie finally had its day?

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/managing/blogs/the-venture/death-of-the-great-australian-sickie-20130716-2q0xo.html#ixzz2ZouzKAwI

Take a sickie & go to the beach Crook.   

Quote:



Go to the shopping center  - have a coffee & doughnut.

It's a sickeeeeeeeeee. 

Sickies are vital in maintaining a well balanced work/home relationship.

I loved taking sickies, especially the ones where you were half way to work and turned back, a day to be treasured.

Anyone else done that? Of course you have, don't lie.

Apparently, according to a study, people who have to drive by the beach to get to work are far more likely to take a sickie.

Bobby. wrote on Jul 23^rd, 2013 at 10:24am:



Really honest bob? I used up most of mine. Funny how when you take a fake sickie, you end up getting sick.....karma 

when I first arrived I thought it was compulsory?

the great Australian Way!

Quote:



Yes - & they give the whole team at work the flu or a cold.

Idiot bosses encourage sick people to infect the whole crew.

Quote:



what utter crap...I worked for years and never ever heard of anyone being told they could not call in sick... and most people dont come to work and then get sick.. they just dont come in in the first place..

all I ever heard was if anyone claimed they had a headache.. they got permission to go home..

what a crock this thread is.. anything to make out the poor worker is maligned.. I am over it.. what about those that go to the cricket????..

what about the HANGOVER sicky?

they dont give a stuff about the boss or their fellow worker.... dont here you union guys complaining about them.. and we have plenty..