Maybe the wind was blowing the wrong way, he thought it was Sunday, or her sock drawer needed sorting. Either way, absenteeism is a huge, but largely neglected, problem for employers

Labour costs spring first to mind when a company wants to reduce overheads. But while initial attempts to control these almost always focus on direct costs such as wages and benefits or employee numbers, other costs remain hidden. One of those is absenteeism. Irish businesses' lose hundreds of millions of pounds each year through absenteeism. Irish workers were absent for an average of 11 days each last year and 12 million working days were lost, as against 97,000 days due to strike action. The cost to employers was over E635m in wages and benefits paid for work not done. These figures include sick leave, bereavement leave, exam/study leave or any other unexcused time off.