The Times recently printed a piece on the “monstrous truth about sickness at work”. This truth was that we are apparently too dependent on our employers, we have shifted the responsibility of providing for our families from ourselves to a third party and that employment in large organisations has “sapped our drive and turned us into a bunch of dependent stuffed suits”. It also said that the bigger the organisation, the more days sick an employee will take. The Times’ solution was that Britain needs a shift in favour of entrepreneurship and self employment.
Being recruiters, we can’t help feel it’s actually quite a good thing that the UK has what the author calls a “corporate beehive” as if everyone was self-employed, we’d be out of a job. But that aside, is the situation really this bad? Obviously if you are solely responsible for your business and livelihood you will avoid taking days off. But this isn’t necessarily a good thing. I think most of us would agree that if someone in our office was suffering at their desk, we would rather they went home so they could recuperate and avoid passing it onto everyone else! If you work for a big organisation, enjoy your job and get paid for a few days off sick, is there really so much wrong with that?
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