Social media is helping to stop sick days

♦ Staff are increasingly unlikely to “pull a sickie” because they are worried about their boss finding out through social media, research has found.

Insurance firm Aviva found that while less than one in four employees admits to taking a day off when not actually ill, 69 per cent have gone to work while sick.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the average number of annual sick days fell to a record low of 4.3 days in 2016, compared with 7.2 days in 1993.

Dr Doug Wright, medical director of Aviva UK Health, said: “I think that increasing transparency through social media is probably one of the forces behind this.” He added that reduced job security meant workers were more concerned about what their boss thought of them.