Sick Leave Raises Concerns in UK
September 17th, 2009
As the financial crisis becomes a growing concern in many countries, efforts to help keep businesses afloat are being explored in great detail. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom recently released a report concerning the costs of sick leave on companies, helping to increase the perceived gravity of the neglect of physical and mental health in the typical workplace. The report notes that over seventeen billion pounds were lost nationwide on sick leave over the past year, a motivating sum for some businesses without effective care services and positive programs in place.
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Companies that do not give any consideration to looking after its employees’ health do realize that it is more of a loss than a money-saving activity sooner or later. While some companies have a small program for this, others have an all-inclusive bigger program. But the bottomline is that if there is no such program, it is harmful to the company’s balance sheet in a big way.
The problem is bosses conveniently ignore it when it’s blatantly obvious that staff are under too much pressure. They need to take steps before employees reach breaking point to help them. Offer staff relaxation therapies and strategies to combat stress instead of waiting until they have a nervous breakdown. Downsizing has a lot to answer for.
I know a very hard working executive PA. One day at work her field of vision suddenly started narrowing almost to where she couldn’t see. She said it was like those old movie scenes when the actor looks through a telescope and you see the circle surrounded by blackness. She was scared to death. Her boss took her to hospital.
There was nothing wrong with her sight. The doctor, after talking to her and running tests, attributed the episode to stress at work. Her boss said right away “Does that mean she needs time off? Because we’re very busy.” Duh! That’s what employees face all the time.
There are those of us out there who work hard and do anything that we can to make ends meet and then there are always going to be those who take advantage of every situation and make it harder for the rest of us to do the right thing. There are people that I work with who are always taking time off just because they have the days and do not think at all about the hardships that this places on the rest of us who show up everyday or the business that we work for. They are only looking out for themselves. It is selfish and I am sure that is what is happening in many of these cases too. People have the time and pay little to no attention to how this could negatively affect the business that they are working in.
Kind of staggering to think that there are those who make it a point to take advantage of a system that in reality was only set up to help them out in the first place.
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