Work sick days hit highest level in 10 years as expert blames ‘loss of community’

As sick days at work hit the highest level for 10 years, an expert has blamed a “loss of community” for the findings by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD). An average of 7.8 sick days were taken by staff members in the past year, up from 5.8 before the pandemic, the study found.

The trade union group CIPD said the rise was worrying and named stress, Covid and the cost-of-living crisis as contributing factors to sick leave. As reported by the BBC, a spokesperson for the CIPD said the conditions were having a “profound impact on many people’s wellbeing”.

The CIPD conducted the study in partnership with Simplyhealth. It was also found that minor illnesses were the main reason for short-term absences, followed by musculoskeletal injuries and mental illness.

Patrick Regan, the author of Brighter Days: 12 Steps to Strengthening Your Wellbeing, and the founder of mental health charity Kintsugi Hope, warns a loss of community support is to blame for stress absences. He said: "Despite greater mental health awareness in our society, there is still a huge stigma and shame around discussing stress and mental health issues with employers and our wider team at work, which means that employees often simply work until they become too exhausted or unwell to function, and have to take sick leave. 

“The modern working environment - in which only half of UK employers have a strategy around wellbeing - and the pressure to organisations afloat during the Cost of Living Crisis often means we frequently have too much work and not enough resource, leading to burnout and stress. The most recent data from the Office of National Statistics reveals that the number of sick days due to mental illness has increased by 3.5 million in the past five years (since 2017). 

“Employers must do more to create healthy work cultures - and not by papering over the issue with a mental health webinar once in a while, but by instigating deep, grassroots change. It takes time but it is worth it - there is a direct correlation between employee wellbeing and an increase in performance and productivity.”

He also mentioned that, despite greater mental health awareness overall, our culture is still a “hotbed” for stress. He added: "Alongside the effect that individual workplaces have on our stress levels, our culture today is a hotbed for stress. 

“The focus on self-actualization and individualism to the degree that we consider the idea of reliance on others as weak and unhealthy, intensified by a highly digital culture, which, while it has its benefits, also encourages us to curate and document versions of ourselves to a watching audience, which can lessen our chances of genuine, supportive human interaction. Loneliness is an enormous driver of stress and mental illness, and with it being less and less likely for people, for example, working parents with young children, to leave near family, we have lost the natural community support network that previously sustained us. 

“People need spaces where they are accepted and can exist just as they are. There is no human being on earth who does not need proper, nurturing support from others, and we must reinstate this if we are to see a fall in work-related absences.”

While mental illness was a leading contributing factor to short-term absence, Covid-19 was another reason behind sick days at more than a third of organisations. Long-term sick leave usually had factors such as mental health issues, musculoskeletal injuries, cancer or stroke.

A change in working culture, such as increased working from home since the pandemic, has also contributed to disengaged and stressed employees, the CIPD said. Public sector sick days were found to be almost double in comparison to the private sector.

Speaking to the BBC, Rachel Suff, senior employee wellbeing advisor at the CIPD, said: "Absence has always been higher in bigger organisations - and that goes for private sector as well - and there are a lot of large organisations in the public sector. Also, there are an awful lot of front-line roles [in the public sector].”