Friday slackers cost firms 50 million pounds a year

LONDON (Reuters) - Businesses are losing more than 50 million pounds a year because of employees leaving work early on Friday, according to a survey published on Friday.

The top excuses for starting the weekend early are a long lunch, doctor's appointment and an out-of-office meeting near to home.

"Our evidence suggests that more and more workers are seeing Friday afternoon as an unofficial holiday," said Pam Rogerson, head of personnel at Employersafe.

"We have estimated that this is costing British business just over 50 million pounds a year, which all goes to form part of the overall 13 billion pound cost of workplace absenteeism."

The company has developed a software system which detects patterns of absence and recommends appropriate disciplinary action.

Employersafe also said the "Friday Feeling" trend has been reinforced by motoring organisations which report that the Friday rush hour now starts around noon.

Research by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) suggested earlier this year that managers believe one in eight of all workplace absences are due to staff faking illness - and the favourite days to do so are Fridays or Mondays.