To: lettersed Subject: Lies, damn lies and absenteeism In most weeks Monday and Friday are adjacent to the weekend, which is two out of five working days, or 40%. In weeks with a long weekend two out of four days are adjacent to the weekend. Every year we have Good Friday, Easter Monday, May, June and August Bank Holidays providing long weekends. When we account for these we are at about 41% of working days adjacent to the weekend, and we still have to factor in other holidays that are not always on a Monday or Friday. The Small Firms Association report on Absenteeism says: .... Some 40% of short-term absence occurs around the weekend, which raises red flags for many employers as to whether there are genuine reasons or not ... The SFA is not the only group to make such statements - IBEC made a similar gaffe October 2004. I guess we really do need more numerate people in business. David.