Monday February 2nd is National Sickie Day.
No, it’s not a national holiday, but more a universal recognition that the first working day of February is not a particularly attractive prospect.
You’ll never know if we made it in to the office or not (because we’re good-for-nothing journos), but if you decided to duvet up and get down to a serious film marathon, here are some good reasons why you might have skived off.
1. The cold
It’s been really cold lately and we had some of that weird white stuff that makes everyone really happy for 2 hours, then miserable for 2 days. Well, I didn’t see any in London, but I think it snowed outside of the capital somewhere.
2. The dark
Getting up in the dark is depressing. If you start so early that you emerge from the Tube at the other end in darkness, then that’s even worse. Sometimes enough is enough and it’s better to stay entirely indoors, on the sofa, with ice cream and a lamp’s ambient glow.
3. Your colleagues
At this time of year, your beloved workmates are probably just cold-carrying snotty invalids who tap away at their keyboards like zombies. Best to stay away and watch The Walking Dead.
4. Your boss
If your colleagues have been reduced to mere zombies by the February effect, then the resultant loss of productivity will be irking your boss. Maybe it’d be better to finish the first chapter of that book you’ve been writing for almost three years, than face a managerial ball of rage?
5. Novak Djokovic
The Dark Lord of tennis tightened his grip on the sport this weekend by beating Andy Murray in the final of the Australian Open. We’re all for diversity here at HRreview and Murray’s coaching partnership with Amélie Mauresmo is proof of the gradual erosion of sport’s traditional gender divisions. So we were rooting for him, naturally.
6. Technology
Email, cloud storage, CRM systems, enterprise management software, social media – wouldn’t it be nice to have one less day of them all beeping at you? None of those things existed in the days of Thomas Cromwell, so stay at home and read Wolf Hall.
7. Mindfulness initiatives
Some have argued that mindfulness has been adopted by organisations to shift the blame of stress on to the individual. Essentially it’s saying, “Deal with it yourself!” Ain’t nobody got time for that. Duvet day please.
Tom Phelan is an assistant editor at HRreview. Prior to this position, Tom was a staff writer at ITProPortal, where he travelled the globe in pursuit of the latest tech developments. He also writes for a variety of music blogs.
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