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diotima
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« Reply #15 on: February 24, 2007, 02:34:04 am » |
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I don't believe that Brits take that number of days off for alcohol-related problems. What I think, and I have eight years of observing this in one big engineering company, is that it's more acceptable to be off sick because of something alcohol-related, like a hangover, than it is to actually be ill. In our sick society it's macho and not frowned on, to be drunk, it's a weakness actually to be ill. I was criticised by HR for being off sick with a 'headache' (which was a migraine), when a colleague who was off the same day with an admitted hangover wasn't hauled over the coals, he was just a 'good old boy'. I'm not sure that a woman with a hangover would have been given the same latitude.
I've felt discriminated against when I've had to cover for certain family-related absences, although I'm basically sympathetic to their problem. IMHO, one answer to this is for more flexitime working, and more flexible hours within those arrangements.
We're not going to solve this problem until it's addressed as a societal issue: employment laws, family rights and it involves the tax system and environmental issues that have been mentioned already.
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