Well being: Sick days raise eyebrows on certain days of the week

The best day to call in sick in the UAE is Monday, according to a recent study. And the best excuse: tummy trouble.

Bosses are less inclined to believe an employee is actually sick when the illness comes before or after a weekend. Paul Bradbury / Getty Images

Don’t call in sick on a Thursday or Sunday if you want your boss to believe you, a survey has found – they’ll just think you’re planning an unscheduled long weekend.

The survey of 1,000 staff by UK market researcher Attest found that the best time to call in sick is Tuesday morning – or, in the UAE, Monday. The least believable days in a Western work week, it found, were Friday and Monday. “It is more believable if an employee takes a sick leave on days not immediately preceding or following the weekend,” says Sujit Nair, the managing director of Dubai-based IT and communications recruiters Delverve Consulting.

“The best time to call a manager would be early in the morning, preferably before they get to work. This gives them the opportunity to delegate tasks to other team members.”

Ravi Singh, the chief executive of Dubai-based Bluefin Consultancy, which advises companies on people management and productivity, says he sees a lot more sickness in his clients’ staff these days. Economic stresses on a business cause stress-related illnesses in its employees, says Mr Singh. “Employers have started to realise there’s a lot of pressure on people,” he says. “They are laying off people – and workloads, hours and production levels have increased.”

Companies with strict policies may require a sick note even for a single day off; while Mr Singh thinks this rule may see a lower rate of absenteeism as a result, he says that, in the current economic climate, staff would still take the day just to “get more balance into their work-life balance”. In his opinion, people tend to just “generically” say they’re “feeling unwell, without substantiation”. Mr Nair, however, thinks flu and injuries from accidents are the most acceptable excuses to a boss, while headaches and backaches would be seen as ailments to work through.

“At the end of the day reputation is everything,” he says. “If you are someone who takes every single paid sick day, year after year, the managers will raise an eyebrow.”

Q&A

Who is more likely to take a sick day – the young or old, men or women?

According to a study by the UK healthcare provider Benenden last year, women were considered more likely than men to call in sick, with 54 per cent of women having called in sick during the year, compared to 43 per cent of men. It also found that almost two-thirds of respondents over the age of 50 had not taken a single day off sick in almost a year, while absenteeism was more frequent in those ages 18 to 35. Ravi Singh of Bluefin Consultancy says neither age nor gender play a “major factor” in the Arabian Gulf, as “people are here to work and make money”.

Is there a better month in the year to call in sick?

The Attest survey found that November and December were the most common months of the year to take a sick day – although that may be more to do with the UK weather.

I’m not sick, I could just do with a day off. Any options?

In some companies in the UK and US, employees are allowed “duvet days” on top of their holiday and sickness allowances. First introduced by a PR company in 1997, they need no prior notice but come from a separate leave allocation – an employee just has to call in on the day. But Mr Singh says he thinks the practice is unlikely to make it to the GCC, where the working conditions, hours and accountability are “totally different” and “peculiar to its own environment”.

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