long-term sickness

The Christmas season comes loaded with many lovely things, including delicious meals, colourful parties, awesome family get-togethers, and more. Sadly though, there’s often a downside to Christmas, with a spike in illnesses often the unexpected gift that visits along with Santa each year.

When flu season is in full swing, the risk of catching flu or a cold from others is heightened. The workplace can be a pool of germs — sometimes all it takes is a single sneeze to spread the virus and affect dozens of colleagues.

Poor mental health is now the biggest cause of working days lost through sickness and absence and costs employers up to £42 billion a year. But employee counselling interventions have been found to reduce sickness absence rates in organisations by as much as 50 per cent.

A healthy and happy workforce is a good basis for a productive working environment, but we know that problems occur which have a detrimental effect on the health and wellbeing of employees.

One of the ongoing concerns about the pandemic is Long COVID – a condition which involves long-term symptoms that can last for weeks or months after initially contracting the disease.

Occupational health advice can be of great assistance to employers when an employee is on long-term sickness or about to return to work after a lengthy absence.