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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

211 replies

Tanyasfootspa · 20/05/2025 13:12

Posting here out of sheer frustration really. Is it just me or does it feel like everything is grinding to a halt because half the workforce is off sick.

I’ve had three appointments cancelled this week alone — GP, dentist, and my son’s speech therapy. All due to staff absences. Tried to phone the council about a bins issue (don’t even get me started) and was on hold for 47 minutes before being cut off.

Meanwhile, I go to work, rain or shine. Loads of my colleagues are off with colds, stress, or just “taking a mental health day.” I’m not doubting genuine illness, but surely there’s a tipping point where too many people being off means things just don’t function?

Schools are short-staffed, NHS is beyond crisis, trains are delayed, post is late. It’s not just inconvenience — this feels like serious breakdown of basic services.

AIBU to think the UK is being held together by a rapidly shrinking group of people who are actually showing up?

Something’s clearly not working. It feels like there’s no backup anymore. No resilience. Just everything falling to pieces when someone sneezes or feels stressed.

Anyone else noticing this or am I being unfair?

OP posts:
suburburban · 20/05/2025 19:49

TwentyKittens · 20/05/2025 19:38

Me too! I really envied my mum that, bless her.

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Yes we’ve been sold down the river

TwentyKittens · 20/05/2025 19:38

suburburban · 20/05/2025 19:24

Exactly, I’m late 50s and worn out, my dm could retire at 60. I wish I could

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Me too! I really envied my mum that, bless her.

HPFA · 20/05/2025 19:30

Shakeoffyourchains · 20/05/2025 13:35

Gee, it's almost as if a country with an ageing population and a shrinking workforce shouldn't have spent the past decade and a half voting for governments that refused to invest in the infrastructure needed to tackle, or at least mitigate, those problems, while also allowing wealth inequality to run rampant 🤷‍♀️

Edited

This.

People keep voting for parties who promise to keep taxes low and then wonder why everything's so shit

Portakalkedi · 20/05/2025 19:28

Indeed, in addition to the many 'working' from home. It's a sorry state and I can't imagine it will improve.

Thegodfatherreturns · 20/05/2025 19:26

Tanyasfootspa · 20/05/2025 13:50

That’s a really interesting point about the workforce shrinking — I had no idea it was by over a million! No wonder things feel like they’re falling apart. If demand hasn’t gone down but the number of people to meet it has, then of course we’re going to feel the strain.

What I’m really wondering is: what can we actually do about this? It feels like there’s a huge gap opening up and no real plan to fix it. Where are the workers going to come from? Retraining? Immigration? Better pay and conditions?

Also, has anyone else noticed this seems worse in the public sector than private? In my husband’s job (private company) there seems very little sickness and time off despite working very long hours and some nights. But in mine (public sector) hours are shorter but people are off all the time, many multiple times per month.

The workers are there but many are unemployed at the moment including doctors and nurses.

tinytemper66 · 20/05/2025 19:26

Well schools are short staffed because of redundancy too. Myself and 15 staff remembers are being made redundant. I am always in work and I am a hard worker…

suburburban · 20/05/2025 19:24

JenniferBooth · 20/05/2025 19:07

Its none of the Governments fucking buisiness if they are living off their own savings and pensions Who the fuck do they think they are...........got far too used to telling people what to do during Covid and liked it too much.

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Exactly, I’m late 50s and worn out, my dm could retire at 60. I wish I could

TwentyKittens · 20/05/2025 19:24

JenniferBooth · 20/05/2025 19:07

Its none of the Governments fucking buisiness if they are living off their own savings and pensions Who the fuck do they think they are...........got far too used to telling people what to do during Covid and liked it too much.

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I completely agree with you about it not being their business.

And as usual governments don't think about incentives to decrease the inactivity, they just have a go at people. Hardly going to entice anyone!

BlueTitShark · 20/05/2025 19:14

Schools are short-staffed, NHS is beyond crisis, trains are delayed, post is late. It’s not just inconvenience — this feels like serious breakdown of basic services.

Justvazreminder that Royal Mail agd Yrains are private companies. Issues with those is more likely linked to poor management (for profit) of those companies than to illness,

Greenartywitch · 20/05/2025 19:14

Your argument is a bit simplistic.

In many sectors like the NHS or education people get sick because of perfectly genuine reasons that employers/government do not want to address:

  • there is not enough staff to do the job so people end up burning out
  • employers offering shit pay and work conditions
  • bullying by managers and verbal or even physical abuse from the general public/parents/kids.

Then you need to add to that long Covid, long NHS waiting lists (so people get worse while they wait to be seen and treated), lack of funding for mental health services and social care and a cost of living crisis that is having a negative impact on people's mental health.

No wonder more people are unwell!

Blaming the individual is easy to do but you need to look at the wider context.

uncomfortablydumb60 · 20/05/2025 19:10

It has to be lack of investment in public services and the NHS

JWhipple · 20/05/2025 19:08

Tanyasfootspa · 20/05/2025 13:12

Posting here out of sheer frustration really. Is it just me or does it feel like everything is grinding to a halt because half the workforce is off sick.

I’ve had three appointments cancelled this week alone — GP, dentist, and my son’s speech therapy. All due to staff absences. Tried to phone the council about a bins issue (don’t even get me started) and was on hold for 47 minutes before being cut off.

Meanwhile, I go to work, rain or shine. Loads of my colleagues are off with colds, stress, or just “taking a mental health day.” I’m not doubting genuine illness, but surely there’s a tipping point where too many people being off means things just don’t function?

Schools are short-staffed, NHS is beyond crisis, trains are delayed, post is late. It’s not just inconvenience — this feels like serious breakdown of basic services.

AIBU to think the UK is being held together by a rapidly shrinking group of people who are actually showing up?

Something’s clearly not working. It feels like there’s no backup anymore. No resilience. Just everything falling to pieces when someone sneezes or feels stressed.

Anyone else noticing this or am I being unfair?

Actually quoting the OP because FFS.

Maybe people are going off sick because they're knackered because of short staffing in most places.

Because running on low numbers of staffing for prolonged periods means has a cumulative effect. You never catch up. You end up doing more and more. And eventually someone goes off sick because they're knackered. So it gets worse. By the time they come back someone else is knackered and off they go.

Usually management don't consider sorting the staffing levels out in the first place. Instead it's a sickness issue. People should just get on with it.

People don't just go off sick for a laugh. There's usually annoying processes, warnings, meetings as well as often losing money as most places pay SSP.

JenniferBooth · 20/05/2025 19:07

TwentyKittens · 20/05/2025 14:44

A lot of the 1,000,000 are economically inactive people in their 50s and early 60s who've decided that they can manage without a job and have enough savings to tide themselves over until a pension kicks in. (I'm not talking about those who have nice pensions and retire at 55 or whatever.)

Jeremy Hunt went on and on about these people and the harm they're doing.

I say who can blame them.

Its none of the Governments fucking buisiness if they are living off their own savings and pensions Who the fuck do they think they are...........got far too used to telling people what to do during Covid and liked it too much.

Missywelliot · 20/05/2025 19:06

No slack in the system either. So it breaks.

KmcK87 · 20/05/2025 18:59

Miley23 · 20/05/2025 18:17

Usually six months full pay then six months half pay. Then they accrue loads of annual leave during the time off so are barely in when they return.

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Not to mention your phased return to work days as well.

andtheworldrollson · 20/05/2025 18:54

Accountants don’t like waste
having enough staff to cover absences means sometimes you have too many - cost cutting

trouble is that running tight means people get more stressed and exhausted and more likely to stay off when ill

everyone believes there is saving to be made, everyone believe we can have the health service of Europe for half the cost but it’s false economy

people get sick and they can’t get treatment and things get worse and worse

as a country we can’t seem to manage the idea that investing in health ans mental health saves money overall

XenoBitch · 20/05/2025 18:52

Mh67 · 20/05/2025 18:49

Part of the problem is too many paid sick days. If you didn't get paid people would be at work. My old place is 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay

I dropped to half pay for a couple of months. I was not ready to return to work. Had it been no pay, I would still not have been ready.

Mh67 · 20/05/2025 18:49

Part of the problem is too many paid sick days. If you didn't get paid people would be at work. My old place is 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay

Missywelliot · 20/05/2025 18:44

Yabu. There's too many shit people in work that can't do their job who are blindly following instructions without actually engaging their brain. They're the idiots cocking it up.

Leo800 · 20/05/2025 18:41

FedupofArsenalgame · 20/05/2025 18:22

Strangely enough the self employed seem less likely to be off sick.

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That old chestnut. Try harder.

Toootss · 20/05/2025 18:36

KmcK87 · 20/05/2025 18:01

I work for the nhs and at any minor inconvenience the majority of people stick a sick line in. The sickness culture within the nhs is unbelievable, it’s far too easy to stay off sick with full pay.
I think Covid and furlough made a lot of people care less about working.

I think the ‘woke’ society and be kind meant no one ever gets told off or criticised - staff member would lodge a grievance - so lazy people just take advantage.

PennywisePoundFoolish · 20/05/2025 18:29

My husband is self-employed, of course it's pointless to get signed off from the GP, but he definitely would get a disciplinary if he worked where I did. (3% or 3 different occasions)

FedupofArsenalgame · 20/05/2025 18:22

Leo800 · 20/05/2025 13:40

A lot of people are genuinely ill. I know people who have been horrendously affected by Covid, a couple of whom will probably never work again. Maybe try & show some empathy.

Strangely enough the self employed seem less likely to be off sick.

footpath · 20/05/2025 18:18

@Miley23 but if they go off again after 8 months does the sick pay restart?

smallglassbottle · 20/05/2025 18:18

I'm off today and was off yesterday due to a very painful gallbladder attack. The NHS won't take it out though. I can't afford to go private. I've had this problem for 15 years, but because there's no actual stones on the scan, they won't do anything. Oh well.

My health also gets worse every time I have covid. I don't qualify for a vaccination though. Oh well.