Now admittedly I haven’t read the article of which the above is a headline in today’s Metro… but based on previous similar stories I have seen in other periodicals… this is a topic which gets me rankled!
Generally speaking, when this issue raises its head (of none to pleasant aspect), phrases like “clamp-down” tend to come to the fore; that is to say, the “clamping down” of employers on employees who “pull sickies.” There is talk of the “economic impact” of such – the “cost to British business” of these “lost days” and so on and so forth. But even aside from the less reported statistics of how many free days are gained from unpaid overtime and so on… isn’t the general reaction to this kind of thing kind of missing the point? Isn’t it so typical of “British business” and the policy makers to tackle the symptoms rather than the cause? “We must clamp down on these miscreants, these slackers, these n’er do wells!” – because of course this kind of approach will make our nation’s employees feel inclined to show more loyalty towards those who pay their wages…
