Presenteeism - school and workplace

[Clothering]

The average worker (Uk) loses around 23 days due to working when ill (excludes stress and mental health). With kids often told to go to school unwell, I wonder how much productivity they lose. Obviously it also perpetuates the chain of illness in schools.

23 days a year? That seems a lot!

I would like to see a breakdown of those statistics

What is the source of that 23 days a year absence from illness? I’ve rarely had time off and I can’t think of any company of the many I have worked in where any colleague has been off for that amount of time, apart from a very few cases of serious illness.

It's not absence days.

There are for most people about 230 work days after holidays are taken off. I fail to see how 10 per cent of the time they are ill.

Average is 23? I haven't had any time off I'll for 4 Years. How much time are people having off for 23 days to be an average?!

Perhaps it's 23 days over their whole working life. That works out at nearly 2 days per annum which sounds more likely.

Are people misunderstanding? These aren't days off work. I don't understand the calculations but it's about loss of productivity when people go to work when they are unwell.

Thanks @Piggywaspushed, this isn’t sick days, it’s the average number of days over a year that are lost in productivity due to trying to work when unwell. A person might feel unwell and be at work, but because they are unwell/trying to push through, they are operating at reduced capacity. If Fred feels unwell on a Monday evening, pushes through work at 50% capacity on Tuesday, takes Wednesday off sick, pushes through on Thursday and Friday but can only manage 50% of his normal productivity, it’s 21/2 days lost that week - 1 day to sick leave and 11/2 days to lost productivity.

Some workplaces tell you to stay home when unwell, and just do a bit of work online if you feel like it (obviously, depends on your job whether this is possible). Friends with older kids say some schools and colleges follow a similar, sensible policy (sadly a lot here don't), and people recover quicker (surprise, surprise) so end up working better, and doing better overall.
For others in the workplace/college who have disabilities or serious medical conditions, it makes even more of a difference, because even a mild illness could send them to bed for weeks.
When you read older bools, it seems it used to be the norm to take time off/relax and take things easy for a week after flu etc, and even my doctor said one of the problems today is that people push through, and end up making themselves and others feel worse, and also become less productive, for longer.

https://ippr-org.files.svdcdn.com/production/Downloads/Health_and_business_July24_2024-07-30-150125_xyeb.pdf?dm=1722351686

Maybe we should be looking at why people are ill so often. Poor diets, poor housing, unequal incomes, all must have a part in this.

We’ve created a society where we pretend you shouldn’t get sick ever. It’s completely normal to catch colds/stomach bugs and sometimes for them to be quite bad. Obviously not all the time. Sometimes they take quite a few days to get over. We shouldn’t be going from dying in bed to straight back into the office, which is what people do because they feel bad. I’ve been into work and done nothing but clock watch to go home to bed. Waste of time.
I’ve worked places that the first day you are off sick the first question is ‘when will you be back’. I agree people don’t take enough to recover and end up with lingering illness. Or they drag themselves in and spread it around.

when I worked in a school they tried to be incredibly tough about being off and it actually backfired and the number went up (you had to call the head at 7am and she would grill you why you dared to be off).
When they actually looked at the data the sickness rates were down to kitchen staff, because of their age some had been off for long term issues (injuries, hip replacements, cancer) nothing that could be reduced. Making staff feel bad for catching a stomach bug from their toddler gained nothing.