Employee health | Today is 'National Sickie Day' - but is faking it the real problem?

Today is the day when the highest percentage of employees call in sick worldwide, earning it the title of 'National Sickie Day'.

Research from Policybee found that the most common cover story for ‘pulling a sickie’ was having a sickness bug - whereas in fact most were actually suffering from a hangover and were at home resting in bed, instead of being at work.

However, there could be genuine reasons why workers have chosen not to come into the office - and many employees feel compelled to come in even when they are genuinely ill.

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Wellbeing | Nine out of ten employees came into work sick last year

Post-Christmas fatigue, freezing cold weather and close-contact can cause illnesses to run rampant in the late winter but whilst flu season is in full-swing, new research from Canada Life Group has found that over half of British employees feel too guilty to take any time off – even though the vast majority (73%) only take one-to-two days per year due to illness.