While sickies take up a lot of attention in terms of the working habits of the UK workforce, a new survey suggests that for the most not even a job interview or a major sporting event such as the upcoming Olympics would push them into having a day off.
The ICM survey for the Business Software Centre suggests that even if stressed only 17% of people would take time off with only 16% saying they would do so for a job interview 11% said they would take time off for a sporting event.
While recent findings suggested that most people have never taken time off because of a hangover, only five per cent in today's survey said they would while four per cent would skive on a hot summer's day.
The majority of people (45%) said that they would not take a day off for any of these or other reasons, suggesting that the majority of workers in the UK are hard working dedicated people.
Recent figures from employers suggested that 15% of absence taken by workers is not genuine, while as many as half of HR professionals believe that the 15% cited by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is short of the mark.
Recent CIPD research suggested that 31% feel over 20% of absence is not genuine while 19% feel it is between 11% and over 20%. Public service and voluntary sector employers are the more likely to believe that absence is genuine.
Ben Willmott, advisor with the CIPD told HRG that if organisations are looking to tackle unplanned absence then they must take into account the majority of hard working people when brining in systems of management:
'A badly worked out and unfair system of managing absence could make the problem worse. Any punitive approaches to reducing absence which punish the many for the actions of a few people who throw sickies, for example, should be avoided' he said.
