A third of Brits admit to ‘pulling a sickie’ at work

A new survey shows that 30% of employees admit to ‘pulling a sickie’ to avoid work despite not being ill.

The MetLife UK report also looked into the reasons behind why so many workers were taking sick days despite being healthy.

The majority (40%) reported feeling burned out, with this figure rising to 47% for women compared to 31% for men.

Other reasons given include taking time off for necessary appointments (cited by 23%), having emergency childcare issues (17%) and needing to take care of a relative (15%). Some employees even admitted to reasons such as avoiding ongoing workplace issues, meetings and deadlines.

Adrian Matthews, head of employee benefits at MetLife UK, said, “Stress, declining productivity and a lack of engagement continue to be a significant challenge for many employees contributing to increasing absenteeism in the UK.

“While taking pre-arranged and paid time off work is crucial for employee well-being, it’s essential to understand the underlying reasons for increased sick leave – both genuine illness and sickie days.

“These absences can stem from a variety of factors, including mental health concerns, financial stress and childcare challenges. Nearly 3 million people are currently out of work with long-term ill-health, and it’s holding businesses and their people back.”

Adrian added, “Workplace employee health and wellbeing benefits and other supportive policies can greatly support businesses with this, in fact, many are designed to provide pre-early intervention, by preventing any illness occurring, but if illness does commence, they can then assist with early intervention to support the worker from going off work sick.

“By deploying regular, effective and varied communication about all the employee benefits they offer we believe that both genuine illness and some ‘sickie days’ can be minimised.”

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