Star comment: Cheating employer a bad idea

Runny noses and snuffles do not stop them. They will make the effort even if they are feeling like death warmed up.

They are at the other end of the spectrum to those who embrace the sickie culture. For them, going to work is a tiresome option, and it does not take much for them to report in sick, even if they are perfectly well and simply want a day off to do something else, or want a lie-in.

Heard of the Bradford Factor? It is a sort of sickie detection kit. By looking at patterns of absence, it can expose those who play the system.

Research has shown that people working in certain sectors are more prone to taking time off than others. Those in banking show up rather well in the figures. Agriculture shows up comparatively poorly.

You can read what you like into such things, but banking staff tend to work in dry, quiet, offices, and if you are in farming you may be rained on and standing up to the top of your wellies in cow dung.

Not everybody looks at the latter prospect with great enthusiasm.

Or maybe it's just that those working in the open, and in the leisure sector, are more prone to catching something or suffering some injury because of the nature of their working environment.

While we can agree that people who cheat their employers by taking time off for fraudulent reasons are doing the wrong thing, which puts pressure on their colleagues and has an impact on the business, which with a small business could be a significant impact, are those who struggle in heroically to work to be commended?

They sit there spreading germs and are incapable of giving a 100 per cent performance. They are quite likely to arrive coughing and spluttering. Their bosses take one look and say: go home.

Employers have a role to play. They may consider absenteeism as a disciplinary matter, but in the Army, high sickness rates are seen as a symptom of low morale.

If coming to work is a joy, they will come. When did your workplace last have a works outing?