This is how Poles extend their holidays. It’s not about vacation

As the Conperio report (a company specializing in the analysis and management of sickness absence) shows, 2025 brought an increase in the number of one-day sick leave. Analysis of such L4 shows a clear and repeatable pattern that may indicate employees’ attempts to extend their weekends.

Data collected by Conperio shows that last year as many as 23.6 percent one-day L4 occurred on Fridays, and 20.5 percent for Mondays. This means that almost 45 percent all one-day sick leave were concentrated in the two days immediately adjacent to the weekend. For comparison, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays recorded levels in the range of 15-16%.

L4 instead of a holiday before the May weekend

Conperio experts say that we are dealing with the so-called bridging. This means using one-day L4 in a way that allows you to extend the weekend. This kind of sick leave is a big hit, especially during the period that is fast approaching, i.e. the May weekend. – More and more often, layoffs are not the result of real health problems, but a convenient way to plan an even longer May holiday – emphasizes Mikołaj Zając, president of Conperio, quoted by Infor.pl.

The expert reveals that employees go out of town during this time, renovate their apartments or extend the barbecue. Zając points out that companies are left with problems, sudden absenteeism, production losses and disruptions in work organization.

The website points out that employees who do this sort of thing more and more often fall into the trap of controllers who tighten the screw, because the left L4 means losses for companies. Controllers are becoming more and more effective in tracking down fraudsters because they are helped by a special application. The system automatically analyzes employee absenteeism, provides managers with analytical data, indicates irregularities and suspicious cases and suggests referring a given person to a field inspection. Infor.pl shows the example of an employee who found himself in such a situation after taking four L4 in one quarter. After analyzing the application, it turned out that the sick leave taken in February coincided with the winter holidays in a given voivodeship. Doubts were also raised by the fact that the sick notes appearing one after the other were issued by two different doctors in two different medical facilities. The manager decided that the next sick leave taken by the employee would be subject to inspection. It revealed irregularities – the employee was caught repairing the car despite the instructions “1-sick person should stay in bed”.

In a recent survey conducted by SW Research for “Wprost”, every fifth Pole (20.7%) admitted that he had ever taken a heavy dose of L4. 75.3 percent respondents declared that such a situation had never occurred.