Sick note culture

Apparently 175 million working days are lost each year to sickness with the average person taking seven days off each. When added up it is estimated that these lost days cost the British economy £13.4bn.

To try and tackle this ‘sick note culture’ the Government has put forward some controversial plans that involve doctors writing to employers saying what a worker can do instead of what they can’t.

However, these statistics are not likely to be a representation of the people who are signed off work by a doctor. They are more likely to be those who wake up in the morning and feel a little under the weather so decide to take a day or two off until they feel better, so in this respect these plans aren’t really going to change these statistics.

Emma