Is the country morphing into ‘sick note Britain’? According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the average worker took 7.8 sick days in the past year: that’s up from 5.8 days from 2019 and the highest level reached since 2010. The number of days taken off is up in all sectors, but while the reasons for absences vary across professions, common themes are emerging. According to CIPD, this includes people testing for Covid-19, stress and the cost-of-living crisis.
While the data is new, this trend of increased absences has been growing for some time. The number of people on long-term sick leave skyrocketed around the pandemic, increasing by more than half a million, to now more than 2.6 million out of the workforce. Back in March, employment law firm GQ|Littler revealed that the number of ‘fit notes’ from GPs (detailing someone’s fitness to work) had risen and had hit a record high in 2021/22, totalling just under 10.5
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