ABSTRACT
Employee absenteeism may be the result of: job dissatisfaction, poor attitude to work, conflicting interests, poor interpersonal relationships and emotional disturbances. The pattern of absence usually provides an important clue as to why the employee may not be at work. Research shows that most employee absences occur on either side of the weekend –on a Friday or Monday. It has been suggested that one way of reducing Monday absenteeism is to change payday to Monday, but this may shift maladies to Friday, such is the aetiology of the disease. Another useful device to reduce absenteeism is to make it practice policy for staff to report their absence to someone in authority, such as the practice manager. The points total reduces as absences occur and a sliding scale of bonus payments determines the end of year bonus, depending on the employee's record. Most instances of absenteeism are confined to a few employees.
