The proverbial Australian “”sickie” is still healthy and well according to a survey this week by Morgan and Banks. The “”sickie” is not well-defined. Some view it as taking a day off work when you are not sick at all. Others view it as a day taken off when you are only slightly off colour and you could really work with a bit of extra effort. And still others think it includes single days taken when genuinely ill. Or it can mean all three.
Whatever the precise meaning, the survey reveals to Australia’s shame that one in eight respondents said none of their “”sickies” were genuine. Monday followed by Friday were the days with the highest number of “”sickies”.
Morgan and Banks estimated the “”sickies” cost industry $2.5 billion a year. But they rightly pointed out that it was not always the worker’s fault. Often inflexible work practices meant that workers, particularly, women had to take “”sick” days to attend to other business, particularly the related to children.
These days the catch-cry in workplace reform has been flexibility. But flexibility must be a two-way street. The practice of finishing the job after usual hours should also sound in occasional time off when family or other duty calls. This is preferable to rigid award entitlements which only compound the problem as workers feel the need to exercise all their “”rights”.
Managers must become more inventive. They must provide incentives and deterrents. People who do not take “”sickies” should get better treatment in the case of long-term illness. Perhaps they should sound in a bonus on retirement. Perhaps the first one or two sickies of the year should be unpaid.
In any event the present system seems to encourage dishonesty as workers feel they must “”take a sickie” as it is sometimes the only way to get away to do urgent other business.