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April 19, 2010

Is the Aussie 'sickie' a thing of the past?

So what is happening? Was this long, long weekend a statistical anomaly created by the public holiday dangling precariously in its near mid-week spot on a Tuesday, rather than hugging a weekend this year? Sadly past statistics tell us this is no anomaly.

Absence-management firm, Direct Health Solutions estimated staff numbers to be down more than 33 per cent compared with a normal Monday on 25th January this year*. That is just a one per cent difference compared with 2009, where staff numbers were down 34 per cent on the Tuesday following the Monday public holiday.

But isn't it all really just a bit of larrikin fun?

It's far from it when you consider these percentages start translating into a staggering $250million in lost productivity, extra administration and overall losses, according to figures produced by Retail Association executive director, Scott Driscoll*.

To many people, the ‘Aussie-sickie’ is a bit of a joke - something everyone does and believes they deserve once in a while.

However, as David Gallagher, Beilby's NSW/Qld General Manager says, "If they don’t care about the impact on the bottom-line for their employer, do they ever think about the impact on their colleagues carrying the extra work-load for them?”

It seems then we may have been a little premature in our own attitudes toward the state of the Aussie-sickie, with 59 per cent of our survey respondents sure it was in decline.

And perhaps it's time we started taking more decisive action again, by thinking of better ways to help change overall attitudes and perceptions across the board.

*source: theage.com, 25th January

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