Good news for UK employers: employees are calling in sick less often. The Office of National Statistics reports that the average worker now takes just 4.5 days because of illness or injury, compared with 7.2 in 1993. A total of 131m work days were lost in 2011, down 6m on the year before. Londoners are least likely to take time off (1.3% of total working hours), whereas employees in Wales and north east England called in sick at the rate of 2.5% of total working hours.

Tell us how often you called in sick last year and whether you noticed any difference in your colleagues' behaviour. Do you agree with the Work Foundation and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, who say that "presenteeism" rises in recessions because employees worry that they'll be first in line for redundancy if they take time off.

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