Posted: Wednesday 22 December 2010
Get Ready To Expect A White (Lie) Christmas!
A study conducted by moneysupermarket.com based on figures from the Office for National Statistics reports that approximately 4 million workers in the UK will pull a "Santa sickie" over the festive period so that they can tackle last minute Christmas shopping. Men are worse offenders than women with 13% admitting to bending the truth about being off from work. In regional terms, the Scots are the most likely to tell their bosses that they are unwell while they stock up on gifts and goodies.
Businesses are also set to suffer as employees take longer, retail fuelled lunch breaks as Christmas approaches. The study reports that these "Santa sickies" could cost UK businesses an estimated loss of £1,055,177,977 over the festive period.
I know that the adverse weather has made shopping and Christmas preparations difficult across the country, but employees should be mindful of the consequences of "Santa sickies"!
