UK set for document sickies as employees skive off on 35C ‘Bunk Off Tuesday’
Up to a million workers are expected to pull a “sickie” on Tuesday as temperatures near a record 35C, with bosses facing an estimated £200million hit from heatwave absenteeism
Bunk-off Tuesday (May 26) will see a million staff skive off(Image: Getty Images/Westend61)
Bunk-off Tuesday (May 26) will see a million staff skive off to enjoy the predicted record 35C (95F) meltdown – after a blistering hottest May day ever yesterday.
The biggest sickies day of the year today is estimated to cost businesses £200 million. Britain’s tropical “heat dome” is the hottest place in Europe, as millions more work-from-home employees cry off from their duties in the garden.
Yet those who do make it into the office will see their productivity slump by 10% amid the stifling heat. Some sun-lovers will phone in sick today to extend their long weekend to four days.
Almost a million staff are estimated to call in ill with days off expected to leap by around 35%, heatwave absenteeism data trends from BrightHR show.
The company monitors 750,000 employees at 65,000 companies. Alan Price, CEO at BrightHR, said: “Sick leave rose 32% during a heatwave in September 2023.
“It’s funny how a bit of sunshine can clear people’s calendars. We’re expecting last-minute absences and no-shows.”
About 700,000 workers are absent on an average day, Office for National Statistics figures show. Seven in 10 workers are tempted to call in sick in hot weather so they can sunbathe instead, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) research shows.
Britain’s economy faces a £200million bill for other staff covering absent colleagues’ workload today, it warned. “Absenteeism costs include replacing employees, loss of services or sales, and impacts on morale, workloads and stress levels of colleagues,” the CIPD said.
The findings come as Britain bake in record-breaking May temperatures with parts of the South and South East forecast to hit up to 35C today. Sunday brought a record-breaking high of 32.3C at Kew Gardens, south-west London, and the warmest May night since 1944.
And this was broken again yesterday (May 25) as the UK recorded its all-time hottest May temperature as a part of London hit 33.5C. The high was at Heathrow, in the capital’s west, the Met Office said shortly after 1pm on the bank holiday.
Britain is also expecting a baby boom nine months from now as randy folk turn their day off into a “bonk holiday”. Most babies born in a single day of 2024 were conceived nine months after the second May bank holiday, according to the latest Office for National Statistics.
Seven of the top 10 most common birthdays in 2024 fell in September – nine months after Christmas. Boffins say that points to a pattern – that official holidays lead to a subsequent rise in births as couples use time away from work to have more sex.
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