'Sickness presence' sweeps Britain

Nearly three quarters (72%) of Brits go to work despite feeling so ill they could legitimately stay at home, according to a survey of Britain's working wounded.

The survey by AXA PPP healthcare indicates that, in the past six months alone, two thirds (66%) of working people have gone to work when they would have been well within their rights to stay at home. And during this time more than half (53%) of respondents have not taken a single day off sick.

So why are we dragging ourselves into work when we're so unwell? In the main it's for positive reasons, with 29% of people saying they don't want to let down their colleagues.

But there are some negative reasons, more based on fear - 24% say they just have too much work to do and 15% are worried their sick leave records could be used against them if their employer comes to making people redundant.

One in five people even say that they've used up some of their annual leave entitlement to cover up for having to take time off sick - of these, 32% said they'd done this because they didn't get paid for sick days, while 26% said they were scared their sick leave record could be used against them if their employer comes to making people redundant.

Dudley Lusted of AXA PPP healthcare said: "Sickness absence is very often due to minor, self-limiting illnesses and, as this survey shows, most employees continue to turn up for work when they're feeling under the weather. And, if they do have to take time off, they can be trusted to come back as soon as they feel well enough to work again. It's wrong to subject hard working people to over zealous absence management methods such as having to report in sick to an occupational nurse ‘helpline' or (as was suggested recently) even be subjected to a lie detector test!

"Smart employers will make sure their managers are properly trained and supported to manage attendance positively and, when people are off work sick, concentrate on managing those employees whose attendance should give genuine cause for concern, whether it's frequent absence takers (often referred to as skivers) - for whom there will probably be conduct issues - or people with medical conditions that put them at risk of being off long term sick.

"Back pain and other musculoskeletal problems and psychological problems such as stress, anxiety and depression are the problems that should be setting off alarm bells. For these, early access to diagnosis and treatment is key to an early return to health - and back to work."

Sickness presence varies by profession

The AXA PPP survey examined levels of sickness presence by profession, with some interesting variations.

Nearly nine in 10 people (87%) who work in Marketing, Advertising and PR, or in Sales (86%), solider on even when they could have stayed at home. Likewise, 72% of those working in Media (including journalists) and Creative Industries kept going when they could have legitimately stayed home.

While most people (especially ‘knowledge workers') carry on working because of their desire to support their colleagues or their demanding workloads, 39% of those working in Sales say the main reason is they need the money. And 31% of those working in Customer Service/Call Centres were worried their sick leave records could be used against them when it comes to making redundancies.

Those in the Charity sector are the least likely to go to work if they are feeling unwell, with 48% having never done this, followed by 46% of Graduate and Trainee employees and 44% of those working in Electronics.