The Tale of Two Sickies by David Goldsmith

Both sides of the sickie

We’re talking tactical skiving here, let’s clarify from the start!

This isn’t making light of people who are genuinely ill, this is solely about the practice of skiving off work because you can’t face going in that day.

It’s particularly harmful for the business and doesn’t exactly indicate a happy employee either, so what can be done to stop it, or at least to minimise it as much as possible?

The employer perspective: Symptom of toxicity?

If you are forever moaning about the high instances of sickness in your company it’s likely that this is a symptom of something far deeper.

Is your workplace as it is the sort of environment that people want to spend their time in? Is it also accompanied by its evil twin high staff turnover? If it is, it’s likely that you’ve created a toxic working environment. And that isn’t what you went into business to create.

Steps to eliminate a toxic working environment

You might think you have created a fine place to work, but unfortunately your opinion really doesn’t matter if your colleagues and employees think that it isn’t. Because they are the ones who are going to decide what sort of a workplace it is, and if they disagree, sickies are an obvious symptom of discontent.

What could be brassing them off?

Micromanagement

Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job, said Winston Churchill.

Are you so keen to be on top of everything that you are micromanaging the life out of everyone? If you had the faith to employ them in the first place, let them get on with their work without fearing that you are looking over their shoulder all the time!

Team building out of company time

It’s tough for anybody to achieve their ideal home/work balance. If you want to work on building your team’s morale, do it in your own time, not theirs! And make sure that the planned activity is fully inclusive so everyone can join in, watch out for wine tasting if you have colleagues that are teetotal, for example!

Ask what they would like to do, don’t just present them with a ‘fait accompli’!

Be flexible over hybrid working

Some people love full time office working, but it isn’t suitable for everyone. Are you flexible enough to accommodate individual requirements? There’s often a misconception that all people who work from home are lazy and skive.

This isn’t necessarily the case at all, and that’s what your KPIs are for! If your KPIs are being met, does it really matter where so long as they are? Bear in mind also the increasing impact of fuel costs on the daily commute.

Why should people have to waste money on fuel and damage the environment when they could be working just as effectively from home? This is another key driver (pun? sorry) to taking sickies, employees are actually financially better off if they don’t come in every day. All of which can be solved through having a flexible attitude based purely on the KPIs!

Pay your bonuses gross!

It’s good if you pay bonuses if the business has had a good year, but if you offer them, pay the gross! If you don’t, that £300 bonus works out considerably less by the time tax, NI and student loan have taken their chunk, and the end result is disappointment. Get a pre-paid card or some means where they get the full amount, not a vastly reduced net amount!

Net bonuses in some ways do more harm than good, you don’t miss what you’re not expecting, but if you receive less than you were expecting the end result is that employees often feel short-changed. And how do your disgruntled employees register their displeasure?

They take a sickie!

Signs of ‘quiet resignation’

If employees are regularly absenting themselves through sickies it’s a sign that they have succumbed to ‘quiet resignation’ mode, in effect working to rule and doing the bare minimum to keep the job.

How can you make the role or prospects for advancement better so your employees feel more engaged and see they have a stake in your company’s future rather than just taking the money until something better turns up?

Are you the right person to be doing the hiring?

You might be a great founder who has built a great business. You know your stuff and your product/service is great!

But we can’t be great at everything, and a lot of great business leaders let themselves down by thinking they know about hiring, when they really don’t have a clue! Is it time to consider partnering with an agency or investing in a specific person to handle the recruitment side?

The cost of a bad hire is significant for any business, get it wrong and you’re back to square one! And nothing raises a red flag for both current and potential employees as a high staff turnover?

How can you build a settled, happy productive team when you’ve no idea how long the new starter is likely to last?

Unsettled teams don’t make for happy working environments. They’re either leaving or taking sickies while in the process of looking for someone else! Would it be better for the business if you had specialist help with the recruitment?

The employee perspective: Demotivated, unhappy

‘There’s nowhere for me to go!’

If the company you work for doesn’t have a clear career path, it’s easy to become demotivated if you have done the same job for a period of time. If there is nothing to advance towards, what’s the incentive to work at full throttle when there’s no incentive to do so?

Waiting for an annual below inflation payrise doesn’t provide an employee with much motivation to put themselves out.

Literally, in the case of deciding to take a sickie!

Inept line management

If there is micromanagement from the very top, the line manager’s role is compromised because they are given no decision-making ability or their decisions are often ignored or overruled.

This causes a lack of respect for line managers and means that it is unlikely that employees will confide in them about their work frustrations because they know there is no point because they are powerless to act on any issues raised.

So I might as well take a sickie.

Powerlessness

Micromanagers are not easy people to approach to discuss concerns over jobs that fail to motivate. There’s the fear of not wanting to rock the boat and the perception that you won’t be listened to or taken seriously.

So you sit and stew, and then decide you’d rather be at home than stewing, so you pull a sickie!

If you feel your opinions aren’t valued and you can’t deal with your frustrations by talking about them you disengage and some mornings you just won’t feel like getting out of bed.

Unhappiness

Most people who pull sickies wouldn’t dream of doing so if their job motivated them and made them happy. Sickies are a sign of an unhappy person, it’s a form of turning away from the outside World and burying your problems in the sand.

So what needs to change? If you can’t change the job, change jobs! It’s no fun being a perpetual sourpuss!

If you are unhappy with your job on an ongoing basis, you have three options:

1. Try to effect change by pucking up the courage to speak your mind about how the job is

impacting on you.

2. Look for a job that is more suitable for your needs.

3. Think about taking the leap and setting yp your own business

There are two further options which aren’t included above, because they’re bad options under the

circumstances:

1. Do nothing.

2. Pull a sickie….

Sickies ultimately don’t help anyone, even if the impact appears worse from the employer’s

perspective. Unhappy employees are rarely happy people in their out of work lives, so the onus is on both parties