Today is National Sickie Day – where the most amount of UK employees send those emails and make those calls to their employer with a little cough to tell them they are unable to make it to work today.
Last year 215,000 employees in the UK called in sick! This costs UK businesses around £5.6 billion!
There are a number of reasons for the first Monday in February to be the day we don’t want to go in. It’s the first Monday after Dry Jan, it’s the first Monday after a super long awaited payday and its also a Monday which is statically the most common day of the week for calling in sick anyway!
There are also a lot of people taking days off for interviews after a month of ‘New Year, New Me’ job searching.
While having an extra duvet day usually isn’t a problem and we all deserve a break – we also need to be real with ourselves for a moment.
A day off for a bit of life admin and to give ourselves some time can be counted as constructive…but really should be an actual day of annual leave.
A day off where you can’t face the prospect of going into work and dread every moment of being there means something needs to change.
Today, as part of my Monday Career Series, I discussed with my viewers whether happiness at work truly exists. Chris Cooke, a Personal Trainer and founder of heathclubTV mentioned the famous quote, “Love your job and you’ll never work a day in your life”. I have been attacked for using this quote in the past. I find people who love their work love this quote and use it as a mantra for life, the people who dislike their work hate this quote and feel it’s rubbish and not true and it’s impossible to love your job.
It’s funny how we all perceive the world differently. And that’s all it is – perception.
I know – that when I find work hard and draining, when I call in sick because I just can’t face another day in the office – it hasn’t been long before I have handed my notice in. When I am in a job I like, it doesn’t occur to me to call in sick. Sure – I may wake up some days and think, I don’t want to go into work today because I am tired or love the warmth of my duvet but ultimately I still go in. There is a big difference between work being tiresome and work being so unpleasant that you would rather lay indoors cause you are too drained to do anything.
What makes you call in sick? Are you actually unwell – but you muster through promising to ‘work from home’? Or is it the crushing feeling that you just can’t face another day in the building?
Once you know that, then you need to think about what you actually are going to do about it.
On my Live video today, we spoke about gratitude and if you don’t know what you want then you need to be grateful for what you have.
We also looked at happiness and rather than always chasing happiness maybe it is time to look at what you have right now and find happiness in that first. It is always good to strive for the next ambition – we all do it. But we need to not balance all our happiness on our successes. Otherwise we will keep moving the goalposts and never be satisfied.
If you have pulled a sickie today then today is the perfect day for you to take some time from Netflix to really think about what you do want from your future.
Maybe National Sickie Day can be National Reset Day – a day to reset your thoughts around work and start 4th February in a more positive way.
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