Absenteeism

With everything that's written about bad bosses, it is easy to forget that employees can be as bad as any manager. Take this guy, for example.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an astonishing 43 percent of employees in the private sector (that's 50 million people) don't get paid sick leave.

You might think the benefits of getting and staying healthy are self-evident. But more American companies are finding they are having to pay workers to get the message.

One in three British managers is so afraid to take time off work that they will drag themselves into the office from their sick-bed if they have to.

Two thirds of U.S workers who call in sick at the last minute are not ill at all, costing businesses more than three quarters of a million dollars a year.

It's not stress, flu or bad backs that make most workers call in sick, it's because they've been drinking too heavily the night before, say British managers.

An Illinois court recently listened to arguments in the case of Jennifer Smith, an employee with a reputation for absenteeism, who claimed a 13th FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) leave in 12 years of employment.

Now there's a new excuse for persistently not showing up for work (to go with such classics as "my dog ate the car keys"). According to German researchers, persistent absenteeism could be a symptom of work phobia.

Britain's bosses are convinced that their staff just can't resist the lure a long weekend at their expense, with new figures suggesting that around one in eight workplace absences involve staff "pulling a sickie".

American workers are much more likely to struggle into work when they are ill than a decade ago, with many dragging themselves into the office even when they are in chronic pain.

Europeans are working fewer hours a week, but the extra pace and intensity of the workplace is pushing stress levels higher, a 31-country study has found.

Sickies are a big deal. Employers complain about lazy, dishonest employees but is one day per person per year such a big deal? And aren't there more important questions to ask, like: why don't they want to come to work?

A growing number of employers are allowing their employees to take peternity leave to care for their pet if they are ill or need to go to the vet.

Hangovers cost the Australian economy some A$437 million (US$344m / £180m) a year with workers claiming more than 2.6 million days off sick each year as a result of the morning after the night before.

The number of American workers skiving off work is at its highest level for seven years, a new poll has suggested, with those who are badly managed and fed up the most likely to find an excuse not to come in.

An attempt by a South African man to use a stolen doctor's note to take time off work has backfired after it was noticed that he was highly unlikely to be pregnant, as the note he presented claimed.

Claiming that your dog ate the car keys just isn't going to cut it any more as an excuse for being late for work. Now it's far more plausible to try blaming a malfunctioning sat-nav for sending you in the wrong direction or saying that your Blackberry malfunctioned.

Predictions that Britain's hot summer would lead to an epidemic of sickies appear, at least on the evidence so far, to be somewhat wide of the mark.

The amount of time British workers are taking off sick may be declining, but public sector absence rates remain stubbornly high and – in some cases - are actually increasing.

One of Britain's biggest trade unions has unleashed a storm of protest after it offered advice to members on how to throw a sickie to watch England play in the World Cup.

Britain's PR industry has been working overtime during the past few weeks conjuring up just about every possible story angle (and plenty of improbable ones) on the forthcoming World Cup. And if we had a pound for every press release we've been sent about the dire consequences for employers, we would be very rich indeed.

British university lecturers may have just settled their long-running dispute over pay, but employers are predicting a possible union backlash over the coming year over growing levels of wage restraint and business restructuring.

British businesses are badly under-estimating the extent to which their workers and managers are suffering from stress, anxiety, depression and other forms of mental ill health, a disability charity has warned.

Following the BBC's announcement that it will screen all of its World Cup games online, employers have been warned that the World Cup could cost the British economy almost £4 billion in lost productivity.

Employees in Britain are already able to use more than 80 types of complaint to launch legal action against their employers. So it was only a matter of time before a legal pitfall emerged around the forthcoming soccer World Cup.

Perhaps all CVs should contain a portfolio of photos that reflect the trajectory of an applicants life. Organisations would then get a better feel for employee suitability and find that once on the pay role people chosen in this way would not need to feign ill health.

Workers taking time off sick cost the British economy more than £13bn last year – but if senior managers and HR were more prepared to muck in and take a lead the bill could be cut dramatically.

With just a month to go until this year's Football World Cup, bosses are being urged to work out their game-plan in advance with staff in order to maintain morale high, protect productivity and ensure absence levels do not suddenly soar.

Despite their reputation for binge drinking, British workers play hard and work hard, with nearly two thirds refusing to throw a sickie even after a night out on the tiles, a new survey has suggested.

A disproportionately large share of U.S companies' health care costs stem from the treatment of a small group of employees and dependents who have chronic or catastrophic illnesses, according to an analysis by consultancy Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

With little more than a month to go until the kick off of the World Cup in Germany, employers are looking at how they can best avoid employees taking a rash of "sickies" during matches.

The amount of sick leave taken in the UK could be cut by a whopping two million days if only workers could be encouraged to take more exercise, according to a new study.

Fast food giant McDonald's has announced an innovative new initiative in the UK whereby members of the same family working in the same location will be able to swap shifts without prior notice or needing to seek a manager's permission.

Penny Streeter, one of the UK's most successful businesswomen whose rags-to-riches story has been held up as an example to other entrepreneurs, has relocated her firm's headquarters to South Africa.

British employers spend an average of just £97 a year, or less than 30p a day, on the health and wellbeing of each of their employees, a new survey has suggested.

Fear of litigation by staff has reached such a point among small businesses in the UK that a quarter feel unable to take any action against staff who feign illness to take unauthorised time off.

British bosses are shrugging off their previously Scrooge-ish reputation when it comes to party and gift giving this Christmas, a survey of managers has suggested.

Rather than an opportunity to relax and have fun with colleagues after a tough year, the office Christmas party too often degenerates into an excuse to have a go at your boss, snog, fight or be verbally abusive.

All women know that 'male flu' exists and now here is the proof. A survey of 600 people has found that one in three men have taken time off sick because of the illness, compared with one in five women.

Nine out of 10 workers in Scotland resent colleagues taking "sickies" because it increases their own workload, a BBC survey has found.

Many HR professionals lack even the most basic workforce information they need to do their jobs, making a mockery of their efforts to be taken more seriously by senior management, a new report has found.

The stereotypical idea that the British are prudish about sex appears misplaced. If a new survey is to be believed, three-quarters of Britons have "pulled a sickie" because of over-exuberant sex the night before.

As research once again confirms that Monday or Friday are the most common days for workers to take sickness absence, employers are adopting a variety of methods to tackle the problem.

Employers worry about the cost of health-related absence from the workplace, but are unprepared to tackle the root causes in a joined-up, proactive manner.

With one in five British workers admitting to faking illness for a day off work, two-thirds of managers think that staff who are off work repeatedly should have their pay stopped.

The vast majority of working parents in the UK do not know they are entitled to take parental leave from work and so never ask, a survey has suggested.

Employers are being warned they will end up with a painful bill if they do not do more to prevent their staff falling victim to workplace repetitive strain injuries.

If you get sick or have to take time off work for illness in the U.S, you had better hope you are working for a large employer, a study has suggested.

With absenteeism costing Britain £12.2 billion a year, firms are coming up with ever more creative ways to reduce stress, improve morale and increase productivity, writes Nicole Martin in the Daily Telegraph.

The French now have so much free time, thanks to their controversial 35-hour working week, that they can no longer afford to enjoy it, according to tourism chiefs in the country.

Although HR professionals consider absence management their number one challenge, more than half of Britain's employers do not know how much absence is costing their business while one in five do not even know their annual absence rates.

The gap between the number of sick days taken in the private sector in the UK versus the public sector has reached its widest in four years, new figures have suggested.

A revolution in the way that employers deal with stress is on the way after scientists announced the development of the first accurate measure of the impact of stress on the human body and the ability to cope with adversity.

A new report has stoked the fires of Europe's working time argument by suggesting that well-meaning politicians have created the long working hours culture with social policies that allow too many people too much time off.

More than two million people – some five per cent of the British working population – took time off for work-related illness last year, according to latest figures from the Health & Safety Executive.

The Management-Issues 'killjoy' prize of the week goes to a Chicago outplacement consultancy, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, who have calculated that the new Star Wars film, "Revenge of the Sith" will cost U.S. employers some $627 million in absenteeism.

Stress costs the UK economy 10 per cent of its Gross National Product, a new report claims. Yet fewer than one in 10 companies have policies in place to tackle the problem.

Workplace absence cost the UK economy £12.2bn in 2004 - with concern that £1.7bn of that cost is due to staff "pulling sickies" rather than absence resulting from genuine ill-health.

The billions of pounds of taxpayer's money pouring into Britain's public sector has had no effect at all on its absenteeism levels, as new figures reveal that sickness rates have continued to rise.

The Royal Mail may have reduced its absenteeism rate thanks to a controversial incentive scheme, but for other employers in Britain, the problem is only getting worse.