Winter blues in the workplace

As the winter months loom, the dark mornings and dark evenings leave many people feeling a little under the weather and not in the mood for work which leads to an increase in absence rates in the workplace.

Getting out of bed in the dark mornings can affect moral and have many people reaching for the duvet rather than the alarm clock. Low morale increases at this time of year leading to higher absences from work leaving employers with a costly problem.

The latest research by the CIPD reveals that, on average, sickness absence costs employers £692 per employee every year. Sickness absence also represents 3.1% of working time.

In 2009 absence levels stood at an average of 6.4 days per employee and research indicated that a staggering 180 million working days were lost to absence in 2009.

Leading Aberdeen-based employment law, HR and health & safety firm, Empire HR, is urging businesses to ensure they have the right procedures in place to handle absences at work as the winter months approach.

The current economic climate means that it is increasingly important to ensure that businesses are as efficient as possible. Successfully curbing absence costs could make a real difference to a business – potentially saving jobs.

Empire HR say the poor weather, post-summer and holiday blues along with the long wait for the next break from work creates a lack of enthusiasm for many employees who decide not to turn up for work in the morning.

Research found that two in five workers see less than half an hour of daylight during the winter working day and one in 10 sees no daylight at all, leading to slumps in productivity and motivation.

To combat this issue, some businesses introduce daylight initiatives in the winter months giving employees the option to attend work an hour later or finish an hour earlier and such schemes have seen an increase in staff morale.


Employees pulling sick days out of work are not just costly to the employer but also to their fellow work mates. Workload needs to be allocated to other employees leaving some overworked and this in turn can lead to further absences.

There is growing evidence that the longer the period of absence, the harder it is to return to work.
Most short term absence is self certified but there are a number of effective ways of managing this issue.

• Return to work interviews

• Disciplinary procedures for unacceptable absence

• Use of trigger mechanisms to review attendance

• Involvement of managers in absence management

• Provision of sickness absence information to line managers

• Restricting sick pay Training managers to handle absences

• Involvement of occupational health professionals

Return to work interviews can help ensure that short term absence problems are identified at an early stage. They also provide managers with an opportunity to start a dialogue with staff over underlying issues which might be causing the absence.

CEO of Empire HR, Steve Cook said: “Absences in the workplace is costly, and the use of disciplinary procedures leading to dismissal for unacceptable absence may be used if organisations wish to make it clear that unjustified absence will not be tolerated. Overall, employers must have a clear policy in place that spells out rights and obligations when taking time off work due to sickness.”

Sickie Facts:

One in three sick days falls on a Monday

More days are lost in January than any other month

Musculo-skeletal conditions are top cause of all absence

Sick leave amongst women is 24% higher than amongst men

If you need help on any absence management issues contact Empire HR on 01224 701383.

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