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Are Your Employees Mentally Healthy?

If you think you have heard every excuse in the book for taking a day off, here is a new one: Instead of feigning illness, an employee simply tells his or her supervisor, “I'm not coming to work today. I need to take a “mental health day.”

Are Your Employees Mentally Healthy?

Actually, it is not that uncommon. A recent survey conducted by CCH, Inc., found that unscheduled absences due to various personal reasons have reached a five-year high of 2.4% (up 1.9% from the previous year).

More details: The traditional cause of most absences—a personal illness—was the reason given in only 38% of these cases. On the other hand, days missed due to stress was cited 11% of the time, days off for personal needs, such as obtaining a bank loan or mortgage, was given 18% of the time, and “entitlement mentality” (the tendency to take off the maximum number of sick days allowed) was at 10%. Family issues were cited 23% of the time.

Do not underestimate the impact this trend can have on productivity. Bottom line: It may be time to update your company's sick day policy to be more in step with the times.

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