Sick leave as a criterion

lisyloo

People who are off sick can be more efficient and higher calibre worker s than people who have zero absences indeed.
This is why sickness would be only ONE criteria on a list of many like knowledge, productivity etc.
in my experience it has a small weighting.

With these 5 absences though, remember than this is 5 different instances of absences not sickness.
So if you have a cold or headache, then most people would still work and take a lemsip.
I realise some jobs are different, for example if you fly or are in front of customers, but people working in a back office who have acces to symptomatic relief should be at work unless they are physically incapable of working or getting there (I suffer from vommitting when I get a migraine and it's impossible to travel - taxi drivers don't like it).
I would maintain 5 instances of being incapacitated from work is a lot for people with normal jobs.

TheGardener

Hi OP - I work in public sector and our criteria has included sick leave - but not in isolation - it is considered as part of a wider assessment of the individuals performance also including; timekeeping, productivity, skill set and adaptability. We have always looked at the 'bigger picture' so we don't lose good people because of technical point scoring. We use the Bradford System for attendance management which includes a lot of talking to staff and record keeping so we feel we are able to view the points equitably. I don't know if this happens across the whole of the PS - probably not...

BBen

Thanks to those who answered my original question

In addition I've interrogated some of the longstanding employees at work and I now have a fair idea of how it would go down and am much reassured.