Taking time off

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), July 7, 2008

SMOKERS and obese people are the most likely to take time off work, their colleagues have claimed.

They topped a table of workers who take more than acceptable levels of absence ahead of the elderly, recent graduates, your boss and those on flexible hours.

According to an Aon Consulting poll of 1,300 working adults, 57% felt smokers were the worst offenders, closely followed by the obese at 56%.

Colleagues felt 34% of elderly workers took above average time off, with numbers dropping to 30% for recent graduates, 25% for their boss and 16% for people working flexible hours.

In contrast 35% believed their bosses took below average levels of absence and 45% said the same could be said of people working flexible hours.

Alex Bennett, of Aon consulting, said: "While of course there are health reasons that employers should help their workforce either quit smoking or lose weight, from a financial point of view it is in the best interest of businesses to implement programmes aimed at assisting this."