By Robert Campbell

“Joey was sniffing for days and moaning about a headache. Now it’s Friday and he’s not here. There’s a Robbie Williams concert in town tonight!”

When reading about the problems practice managers experience with Sick Pay in their practices, I wonder whether it’s because doctors know something about taking a sickie that the rest of us don’t. I’ve often thought that GP employers can take a hard and unsympathetic line when it comes to their staff being off sick and then having to pay them. I suspect there may even be some resentment about paying Statutory Sick Pay. Yes, I’ve actually come across this.

Recognising a sickie

“Johnnie phoned in sick today. He’s been talking about a day’s angling all week. Angling for a day off more likely.”

Perhaps GPs can smell a ‘sickie’ a mile off. Perhaps they don’t agree with the diagnosis of their staff member’s own GP – even if that staff member is registered with the same practice. Yes, I’ve known that happen too! In fact, doctors need to step back from being doctors when passing judgement on absent staff who are ill. They need to think as an employer and allow due processes to take place by trusting their manager to deal with them.

What is a ‘sickie’?

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but too many apples result in strategic diarrhoea.”

In the Civil Service, it’s well known that civil servants think that it’s their right to take off a quota of sick days each year. This is not to be confused with ‘garden leave’. A sickie is simply a day taken off as a sick day when one is not actually sick. In Australia, an employee might “chuck a sickie”. In South Africa one report suggests that 40% of employees are “planning” to take a ‘sickie’ this winter. A South African survey found that miserable weather and a spate of colds and flu made June and July the most popular months to take a ‘duvet’ day. However, the definition of a ‘duvet day’ is said to be a formal extra day’s leave, taken to alleviate stress or pressure and sanctioned by the employer. Now that’s unlikely to happen in general practice. In the USA it’s said that the formal introduction of ‘duvet days’ has reduced the incidence of sickies. Perhaps civil servants have got it right. Perhaps there should be approved duvet days?

British sickies

“Jemma can’t come to work today as her cat has died!”

One can understand why for the first three days of absence employers are reluctant to pay anything. Below are the findings of two surveys. A survey by the Daily Mail in 2016 revealed that the best and most believable time to call a sickie is Tuesday mornings and the most common excuse is a stomach upset. Staff who ‘pull a sickie’ arguably to extend the weekend on a Monday or a Friday are less believable. I had a staff member with a pattern of taking Thursdays off, which was the result of a regular Wednesday night out.

One study by Beneden gave the following reasons for pulling a sickie:

Popular reasons for a sickie

1. Vomiting: 73%
2. Diarrhoea: 71%
3. Influenza: 58%
4. Sick bug: 53%
5. Migraine: 36%
6. Stress: 19%
7. Mental health issues: 7%
8. Head cold: 11%

Another survey by Pharma Dynamics added to this list:

1. Personal reasons: 27%
2. Home emergencies: 19%
3. Transport problems: 8%
4. Oversleeping: 7%
5. Forgotten appointment: 5%
6. Hangover: 4%
7. Broken out in a rash: 1%

In my view, employers should be tolerant about occasional sick days, but they need to keep count and monitor the number of absences along with the total days of absence, and look for any patterns. An employer would be in their rights to ask for a Sick or Fit Note if an unreasonable pattern persists.

How do you know someone is pulling a sickie?

“Do they get someone else to call in sick for them?”

I suppose there are two types of sickie; the unplanned one where, for whatever reason, the employee will just not climb out of bed, and the planned one where the chosen day has been building up for a while. The sniffling and coughing have been more than noticeable. The well-rehearsed moans and groans about aches and pains were heard by all. You know it’s going to happen!

One in five employees have lied to avoid work!

“Can they lie without blinking?”

The Internet is awash with statistics in the UK. The Government’s Office for National Statistics reported that in 2016 the average number of sick days per worker was 4.3 days. In a 2016 YouGov poll, it found that one in five workers had pulled a sickie that year. Some 19% of UK workers admitted to lying to avoid going to work. But, of course, 19% of the working population amounts to a shocking 9 million people!

My only problem is I can’t pull a sickie – I’m retired.

By Robert Campbell