Peter Wilson - oh dear oh dear. Hey heres a thought lets fine people for taking lunch breaks - that'll incentivise them. Going for a cuppa? Dock their wages.
I've had three years without a day sick. The adoption of the Bradford system by many PS organisations shows the absent and they are dealt with acording to agreed procedures. Sick people don't belong in the office, making others sick.
We work more hours than the rest of Europe and have the worst productivity. No wonder theres some taking sickys and others getting legless all the time.

Francis Valentine, Glasgow,

To all the Public Sector Martyrs who have commented upon their own superhuman absentee records, I would just point out that EVERY survey ever carried out has found that the average number of days lost in the public sector always exceeds those lost in the private sector (including those carried out by public sector bodies).
This is an indisputable fact, and not some personal anecdote. Any sane, reasonable person would accept these findings as a more accurate reflection of the true position, but why let the facts get in the way of your emotive outpourings?
So, to you martyrs, keep up the excellent standards and the fine example, but do not be blinded to the truth that unjustifiable absenteeism exists all around you.

glenn ex-pat, Auckland, NZ

Huh. In my job/world. If I don't show up for work, I don't get paid. Period. When that laughably pitiful weekly pay packet is one's only income, folks like me have to be very sick indeed, to miss work. Maybe you Brits should take away absentee pay, ey? Or, at least make them prove they're sick, if they want their money. If they don't want to work, why don't they give their jobs to someone who does both want--and need, the employement?

In 30+ years of full and part-time employment, I only played hookey once...and felt so guilty, I went and did some overtime on a Saturday. All the other times I have been absent was for very legitmate reasons.

Nancy, NY state, USA

Oh well, at least you'll get rid of the christmas weight and then pass it on to your grateful colleagues who wish to do the same.

Elizabeth, Sydney,

Is there actually any evidence for this? Quite apart from much lower pay in the public sector - nurses and midwives come to mind, which is well accounted for.

I do not deny that UK workers often prefer to go working rather than stay home. But blaming the public sector as if this were one homogeneous group without actually quoting any evidence at all is disingenuous to say the least.

Longest working hours in Europe and among the lowest in productivity - perhaps a wee bit of sick leave does wonders for the amount of work you actually do. Signing the social charter of the EU would be a step in the right direction, but oh no, the Evil Empire cannot possibly be right about something.

Fred Caprivi, Manchester,

The best cure for a stomach bug is self-employment.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

The NHS may help you have that chip on your shoulder removed. A lot of public sector workers never have time off either and some private sector workers have their statutory two weeks. It's not fair to generalise and absenteeism figures are dropping in the public sector.

Judy , Liverpool, england

Yet another diatribe against the public sector. Is there anything that privatisation can't cure?

Des, Dublin,

"In the public sector, where absenteeism is endemic, there is an an implicit understanding that one is entitled to at least two weeks off every winter, regardless of any actual illness. Local authority flu, it’s commonly called."

What a load of rot!!

The vast majority of us come to work. It's just a few bad, free-loading apples that spoil it for the rest of us. The trouble is they're almost impossible to remove from employment.

Graham, Leeds, England

I hope I'm not alone in finding this grossly offensive.
Maybe the author- who certainly does not have to attend a miserable job for long hours day in, day out- thinks it's a good thing to encourage us to ignore our own most overriding interest: our health. Maybe readers of the Times are happy to spread infections around without the slightest sense of resonsibility. But that does not make such recklessness any less stupid, antisocial or dangerous.
Something is seriously wrong with an attitude that making money is more important than protecting ones life.

Sean, London, UK

'Novovirus'? Do you mean 'norovirus'?

Never mind about viruses, you'd be better starting off with a decent spell-checker.

Harold Halloway, Hessle, UK

It may have escaped your notice that the purpose of the advice to stay away is to avoid passing on this unpleasant bug to the rest of the workforce.
Melanie Reid may believe she is doing her bit for national productivity but anyone following her exhortation is likely to achieve the opposite.

John, Lisbon,

Only in paragraph seven did the sexism appear - 'Give me, cries the exasperated executive — and who can blame HER?'

Come on Melanie - you can do better than that. Paragraph 3 at the latest if you are following the Times style guide.

Peter, Sittingbourne,

The most sensible answer to this problem would be to apply rules which meant there was some financial penalty to taking sick leave. That is commonly the case in the private sector (certainly in smaller firms); in the public sector employees generally do not lose any pay whatsever even when taking substatnial amounts of sick leave. Even if only a limited propertion of pay was docked for taking time off, I am sure there would be a significant reduction in sick leave. I am, by the way, self employed, and like most others in that position get paid nothing if ill.

Peter Wilson, Bridgnorth, England

A mildly amusing article which, if written by a man, would not have included a pointless and silly comment about the tendency for women to act like hypocondriacs. During my working life it has always been women who've had to be carried by the rest of the staff. What was the point?

Marion Morrison, Cheltenham,

What amazing comments......one person complains about the author swiping at men by doing the same to women (and I must have missed the original swipe), one person is total ignorant of the irony in the article and yet another seems to think that people bunking off work is a criminal matter rather than one of recruitment.

Why on earth do people get so wound up by articles written for the general public and make themselves looks silly by quoting personal experiences. By doing that you are being as general as the author!

J. Wilkes, Gloucester,

When I was a student I often took holiday work at a city hospital, in admin or reception. Several members of staff spoke quite blatantly, about their plans to 'take a sickie' the following week. When challenged on the appropriateness of this, they would indignantly reel off the names of several colleagues who had taken long periods off work due to illness, so it was 'only fair' that they all had the same benefits. The cases quoted included a woman recovering from chemotherapy and someone who had depression following the death of her baby. I never heard medical staff talk in that way, nor the senior managers, but a whole lot of people on whom the infrastructure rests - cleaners, supplies clerks, postmen etc. - felt it was their right. NOT the majority - but enough to make everyone else's lives difficult not to mention its subtle long-term effect on patients.

Clare, Nottingham,

I recruit for a private firm in the public sector - its very hard to get anything done half the time because the HR staff and hiring managers seem to take it in turns to be off ill!

To the angry PS staff offended by statements like this - you are martyrs to the cause and sadly in a minority!

ITRecruiter, Coventry,

My husband worked at THE PORT OF LIVERPOOL for THIRTY EIGHT years, becoming Managing Director, and then Chairman, and in all time he had FOUR DAYS off work due to illness.

Rosemary Fitzpatrick, RUTHIN, DENBIGHSHIRE

What rubbish. When I was a school secretary I never had time off. Yes, I did go into the job because I needed school holidays having no help with child care at all. The one occasion I stayed away (genuine, loose a stone, can't think straight or stand up, flu), the head came round and put work through my letter box!!!

Sarah Finham, RUGBY,

I worked in the public sector for 38yrs and never had one day off that I was not fully entitled to. In fact I gave up leave many times in order to respond to work demands. Get your facts right!

Colin, Sarlat, France

Skiving off might sound like a bit of a laugh, but it is actually theft.

Employers have a duty to treat staff well and to understand when a person is genuinely ill but when a person is caught stealing (that's what they're doing when they "throw a sickie") it should be treated more seriously, perhaps even as a criminal offence

Mike, London,

Apart from the usual obligatory swipes at men in this piece you do make one interesting omission. The overwhelming proportion of public sector malingererers are of the female persuasion.
In my town hall the women monitor each other's sick days closely and there is hell to pay if one is seen to be taking more than the three or four days a month minimum.

B Grant, Edinburgh,

Articles like this make me so angry. If medical advice is to stay at home until 48 hours after the disappearance of symptoms, there is a good reason for it - namely, to stop the spread of infection. Why can't people just listen and take note? There's nothing clever or heroic about insisting on going out and infecting other people: we are now in a situation where hospital wards have been closed because of this outbreak. And Norovirus is not particularly trivial - see how you feel when you go down with it! Four or five days of sickness and diarrhoea leaves most people feeling pretty low.

Helene, Strasbourg, France

I have worked in the public sector for over 14 years. I have never been aware that " ...there is an implicit understanding that one is entitled to at least two weeks off every winter, regardless of any actual illness. " I wish you would stop talking such uninformed rubbish. I know many colleagues in the public sector who work very hard and take very few days off sick. In the last copule of years I have only had three days off sick and my example is not untypical.
And bonuses? You just don't have clue do you?

AMIT SEN, Epsom, Surrey, U. K.

A fun read, although the symptoms that you describe in the first paragraph are also associated with hangovers...

Neel, London,