How’s your health?
A startling number of Coasties “come down with something” around public holidays.
In fact, Aussies as a whole are surprisingly unhealthy around long weekends.
2 recent surveys reveal the ‘sickie’ is alive and well in Australian workplaces.
National motoring group NRMA found one-third of people that they surveyed confessed to chucking a sickie (or wanted to), to extend a long weekend, and our national holiday is number 1 day to do it.
According to the NRMA travel survey, Australia Day (January 26) is the most popular time to tack on an extra day (22% of respondents admitting to it), with Easter in 2nd place, with 19% opting for a sneaky sickie when that particular holiday falls on the calendar each year.
And the state of sickness varies from state to state, with the Northern Territory taking top spot where bosses cop it – with a whopping 40% of workers in the NT using sick days to take or extend a recognised holiday.
The health report on the rest of the country looks like this:
- 29% in the ACT
- 26% in SA
- 25% Victoria
- 20% NSW
- 19% Qld
- 18% WA
- a mere 8% of those in Tassie taking a sickie near a public holiday.
The worst offenders were ‘Gen Y’ with the survey showing close to half of them (48%) fessing up to the practice.
The findings matched that of another survey of 1000 people conducted by booking website hotelscombined.com.au, which showed 32% of workers aged 20-29 years called in sick to take or extend a holiday.
But figures showing Aussies have millions of days’ worth of annual leave up our sleeve so there’s no need to take sickies.
An accounting software firm (Xero) carried out research that found a combined 111 million days of unused annual leave just from the past 12 months. The ‘Travel Habits’ report showed more than half (52%) haven’t yet used all of their allotted annual leave, with 45% admitting to not using any annual leave at all so far this year.
2 weeks is the usual time taken by most Australians, but 1 in 5 small business owners prefer to take only 4 days off at a time, compared to just 9% of other employees taking short breaks.
The end-of-financial year months (July and August) are the best times to take a holiday, the summer months of December and January are the easiest time to take a break, when a lot of companies slow down or close over the traditional Christmas/New Year period.
According to the report, an overwhelming majority (93%) of people said taking annual leave helped them avoid burnout, and 71% said shorter, more frequent breaks reduced the impact of the “back to work” blues.
What to do if you feel you’re “coming down with something”
The Fair Work Act makes it clear that employers can request notification from employees regarding any absence, and can also require evidence to support any such leave taken.
According to the Act an employee must:
- notify their employer (either immediate supervisor or manager) as soon as practicable that they won’t be at work, and the expected period of the absence; and
- give – if required by the employer – evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person…usually a medical certificate or statutory declaration.
Whether an employee must speak with someone or send a text message or email is largely up to the organisation to decide.
Oh and get well soon!
