Sick leave from June to September: the summer everyone pays for

Sick leave for depression that lasts all summer: the rational calculus of workplace absenteeism

An ankle sprain that drags on for six months. A stiff neck requiring physiotherapy until September. Or the classic stress leave that coincides exactly with the school holidays. The phenomenon has a name of its own in workplace circles —"bajaciones" (extended sick leave abuse)— and has become an incentive calculation that pits two Spains against each other: those who row and those who take the summer off, paid by the system.

The debate is not new, but it peaks every June, when workplace absences soar. Recent official data record 1.6 million daily absences in Spain, an all-time high. And the temptation to jump on the bandwagon grows when you observe that, for employees with more than 20 years of seniority, protection is almost total: firing them costs more than a year's salary, and nobody at the company dares to pull the trigger.

Absenteeism as a rational strategy

The logic is relentless: when the system rewards absenteeism, the absentee is not lazy, they are an optimizer. "If the company has seen you as a number for 20 years and the State hands you sick leave on a plate with no real oversight, anyone who doesn't do it is an idiot. It's not sarracena, it's incentives," sums up one of the most widespread positions. The argument is reinforced by examples of colleagues who chain together 12-month sick leaves plus another 6-month extension, or who alternate a year off with six months back at work to restart the cycle.

The profile of the "sick leave professional" is not limited to the public sector. The pattern also repeats in large private companies: depression-related leave that allows spending the summer at the beach while colleagues shoulder the load. The complicity of the healthcare system, with doctors signing off without much scrutiny, completes the circle.

The cost for those who stay

Against individual rationality, collective resentment emerges. The "rowers" —those who keep working— take on the absentees' work without compensation, and in many cases face retaliation if they try to make it official. "At my job we have a pact: we don't do their part so they come back to a mess. They leave anyway, but not quite so happy," says one affected worker.

The total economic cost of absenteeism in Spain exceeds what the statistics show. On top of fraudulent sick leave there is the contagion effect: when an employee sees their colleague take three months off with no consequences, team sarracena cracks, and it's only a matter of time before the next one goes on leave.

The corporate response: firing or resignation?

Not all companies choose resignation. Some have decided to act: "At my workplace you get fired if you do something like that. A few days after you come back, they hand you your severance and goodbye," explains one user. Spain's labor reform has made dismissals cheaper, and the cost of firing a problematic employee is quickly recouped. But in companies with very long-serving staff, severance pay remains an obstacle.

Meanwhile, France has already reacted by launching a plan with 680,000 inspections and an "alert button" for companies. In Spain, the debate remains stuck in that gray zone where what is legal for some is intolerable for others, and where the solution lies not just in more control, but in redesigning incentives that today reward exactly what they claim to punish.

In the end, the uncomfortable question persists: how long can a system endure where those who don't join the absenteeism feel like fools?

Related forum debates

• Singer Khaled's son celebrates PSG's victory by vandalizing the statue of Joan of Arc in France: "Paris is ours, cry, son of a bitch". · 19 replies
• Screw these "low mineralization" waters · 146 replies
• The PSOE's plumbers keep giving it their all, even on Sundays. · 16 replies
• Open letter to those who, like me, are sick to death of rowing · 135 replies