Work til you drop

Employers are seeing more staff turning up to work while ill, according to a report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).The CIPD also found high numbers of staff willing to work while on holiday.

It surveyed more than 1,000 organisations this year and found that 86% had observed staff attending work while ill, or "presenteeism". The rise compares with a survey in 2010 when just 26% of employers observed the behaviour.

Rachel Suff, Senior Employment Relations Adviser at the CIPD said: "people feel under even more pressure to work...Too few organisations are discouraging unhealthy workplace practices and tackling stress, which is strongly linked to health conditions such as anxiety and depression." 

The Office for National Statistics said that sickness absence totalled 137 million working days in 2016, the equivalent of 4.3 days per worker and the lowest on record. When records began in 1993, the equivalent of 7.2 days were lost.