AIBU to think too many people being off work is causing the country to fall apart?

The Powers That Be ate trying to run public services on a shoestring. In my job they are actively looking to reduce staffing. Then when you, the consumer, needs help, you can't find anyone to do so. Teams are shrinking and this in turn causes more stress for whoever is left, which in turn invites more illness. I've seen it.

Wow! What an aggressive post!

It's about to get worse when they bring in pay for sickness from Day 1 for low paid.

This is a British culture now. My son works abroad and British friends just say 'just take a day off' ... which he can't as folk are relying on him.

The reason services are falling apart is not due to too much staff illness. And even if it that’s part of the cause, then that is likely because we have lived through a pandemic which has left a proportion of the population with chronic illness, we have a failing NHS and people are left on waiting lists getting sicker and sicker, we are living through a cost of living crisis which will obviously have an impact on people’s physical and mental health, social media has taken off in the past 10-15 years and we know that is damaging to people’s mental health. Workplaces everywhere have also cut back and cut back so that most people at all levels are doing the jobs of 4 people and are stressed and unhappy. i could go on but o don’t think the problem is the people have suddenly become really lazy in the last 10/15 years. Let’s stop blaming individuals and start looking to address the systemic issues.

Love this

Agree with this… I’m so sorry you are so frustrated, and I totally get it. Your main concerns seem health related & honestly (NHS employee), we’re not ‘off sick’, we are utterly understaffed. Staffing levels are depleted year after year, and without getting too political, the previous 14 years of pay cuts are eroding recruitment & retention. I’m a midwife/health Visitor & my friend who is a nail technician earns twice what I do with 40 regular clients she see every three weeks.. no disrespect to nail techs, you deserve your money, but so do I. Re GPs… their salary is a disgrace & there’s been no investment in the service for far too long. The GP practice I’m assigned to now only sees patients 3 days a week because they don’t have the staff to cover the entire week 😞. As a health visitor we can’t get staff because we’re paid an entire grade less than we deserve… Can’t remember when I took a full lunch break (for which I’m not paid), or when I finished on time. My colleagues are exactly the same. If anything we are run ragged trying to meet the needs of people under our care and getting nowhere. I’m so tired of being hated/blamed for a cr*p service when we’re trying our best under dire conditions. I hope your situation improves soon.

So you have someone who is forced to travel 2 hours each way 4 hours a day. Unlikely they will have the motivation to healthily cook from scratch after being at work all day and commuting for 4 hours Especially if they have been standing up all day

You'd have to have a fair bit of service to get the six months full and six months half.

Most places seem to run on skeleton staff. Where I work it is difficult to get leave so people will be off sick if they want a particular day. When someone leaves they don't think of starting the recruitment process until that person walks out the door.
There are some people who sneeze once and are off for a week yet there are others who continue working with a broken ankle or other non infectious sicknesses. Strangely enough the whole of the wider team in know exactly which individuals will be off sick (including taking time off sick for childcare and eldercare).
Also why does it take so long to recruit new staff there are people particularly younger people who are ready to work today but employers can't get their arses into gear to speed up recruitment.

This, exactly.

Blame businesses, not people.

It should be us against them, but it’s us against each other.

Makes me wonder why everyone is so unhealthy and constantly ill?

Many people have developed the mindset that loyalty and effort get you nothing in the workplace anymore. Employers, particularly in public services, treat all of their employees like total shit, including the good ones, and people have had enough of it. They no longer feel the need to work themselves to the bone and martyr themselves for people that give no fucks about their health and wellbeing and who will replace them in a heartbeat.

I used to be so motivated, passionate, made so much effort, regularly went above and beyond and all it got me was an expectation that I’d just do more and more. Never any thanks, recognition or being valued. So slowly that flame of motivation has been snuffed out and now I no longer care. It has become just a job to pay my bills to me and I no longer feel any sense of loyalty nor any inclination to do any more than necessary to get my pay each month. I have been off sick for a month and I will be requesting more from my doctor. I’m caring for my dying parent now which has added to the work related stress/depression I developed. And frankly I don’t give two shits about being off sick. Previously, I’d probably have offered to do a bit from home in between caring for my parent but not anymore.

@Enigma53 you too lovely - it’s very easy for many to feel strongly about these things till health goes down the toilet -

Im not surprised, 30 years of being a nurse in the NHS would break a lot of people. Our working conditions are terrible in my team and it never gets better no matter how much bullshit management spout. I am in two minds about it all as With such a generous sickness policy many staff full advantage and in my team where barely a week goes by without one off sick. I have a colleague who was off for 18 months with stress and has been back a year, she's not worked two months on the trot yet and has just gone off again.

You are bang on with this - it is the people who avoid stuff and couldn’t in an office environment. Honestly a few of these people have created absolute chaos when they’re more senior in my work, especially as they’re now making assumptions about how things work and don't bother to find out. I do wonder if people like this manage to get more power with WFH, but as I said I absolutely don’t think it’s WFH ‘fault’.

I WFH and I do my job better and deeply care about the humans behind my work.

The only difficulty I have is with some managers who have not got to grips with WFH for themselves or others. I have several queries in my inbox on the same issue and due to lack of communication I cannot state with any confidence what our current policy is. I've sent three emails to the relevant manager asking for clarity and had no response to any of them. She doesn't answer the phone either.

The problem isn't that I'm WFH or that she's WFH, the problem is that certain managers used to operate on the basis that they only really communicated when a staff member collared them in person and put them on the spot with a direct question, and this can no longer be done.

I've got similar difficulties with other colleagues and the issue is lack of communication which can be done by email and phone easily, they just choose not to.

These people are an absolute PITA.

They come in and are completely unproductive and usually in a bad mood which makes everyone else miserable too. Then they spread their germs around and get sanctimonious when other people don't copy their example and come in sick.

The social contract has been destroyed. People sick of getting the piss taken out of them by governments

I don’t blame people tbh anymore. We’ve had years of seeing our tax money being spunked up the wall on housing illegal immigrants, benefit scroungers, Covid payouts etc. All these contributing factors over the years can turn even the hardest working person into thinking “fuck it, why do I bother”

DS (17) recently started a chef apprenticeship. 12 hour shifts ( 15 min break) If he did that for the next 30, If alone 50 years, he’d be burnt out!! He’s returning to his old ( non apprentice) trainee chef role, where he gets a hours break.

I was a temp in the 90s and I routinely took assignments that were sick cover and holiday cover. People were expected to just do their own jobs and finish at 5. Some exec assistants were expected to stay later if needed, and were paid handsomely for it and were also rewarded in terms of plenty of slack when the boss was away - it was accepted, not a fiddle. Now just doing one’s own job and 35 hours a week feels like a crazy dream. It’s not sustainable. No one has cover for holiday or sick leave so everyone is doing say 1.2 of a job because everyone has to cover. Then, the job itself is core 37.5 hours - dthat extra half hour got added sometime in the late 90s. All your team has been rationalized away around you and your pay hasn’t shifted. People who stack shelves or pack Amazon parcels are being pressured like they’re paid millions and they’re not paid enough to keep a family. It’s too fucking hard for most people

Then everyone comes in sick so people are more sick more often.

Too many maybe but if there was no sick pay offices and commuting trains and buses would be a nightmare

And people in private nursing homes and clinics etc that have to deal with sick patients? Or those whose workmates bring germs in on private companies. Or those shop workers who deal with the sniffing coughing public day on and day out who are not off sick all the time. How's that the same as those Sat on a computer

I used to work through illnesses at my own detriment. Was I appreciated for doing it? No.

If I am not well I am not going to work. My health matters more than my job or inconvenience to others.

Genuinely an honest question and not stirring. But has anyone noticed a difference since a lot more management are WFH? Because I have in terms of mad decisions about redundancies etc between the more senior people WFH and those having to open services everyday, there seems to be an idea that somehow people will make it work whereas staff on the ground can obviously see if you don’t have X number of staff we will have to close.

It honestly feels like they’re much more disconnected from reality and the individuals involved, I personally think it’s a lot easier to dehumanise people and assume that this and this will pick up the slack when you’re not consistently working with people face to face. This is not a dig at those WFH btw, one of my best ever managers managed me remotely and she was great! I think it’s an unintended consequence.