January can be a frustrating month for many business owners. The Christmas break is over, work has resumed, but suddenly you’re seeing more sickness absence, lower energy, missed deadlines, and a general lack of motivation. For smaller teams, even one or two people disengaging or going off sick can have a noticeable impact. The good news is that post-Christmas absence and disengagement is common, predictable, and manageable – if you take the right approach.
Why January absence happens
Before jumping into solutions, it helps to understand what’s driving the behaviour.
Common causes include:
· Post-holiday fatigue and disrupted routines
· Financial stress after Christmas
· Seasonal illness (colds, flu, winter bugs)
· Low morale after a busy or pressured end-of-year period
· A lack of clarity about priorities for the year ahead
· Employees quietly reassessing whether they want to stay.
In SMEs especially, disengagement often shows up subtly:
· More short-term sickness
· “Presenteeism” (people logged on but not productive)
· Reduced initiative
· Increased irritability or negativity
· Slower response times
Ignoring it doesn’t usually make it go away — it tends to resurface later as performance issues or resignations. Here’s our step-by-step guide to manage absence and disengagement:
Step 1: Review patterns not just individual days
January absence shouldn’t be viewed in isolation. Look at:
· Who had high absence towards the end of last year
· Repeated Monday or Friday sickness
· Patterns around specific teams or managers
· Whether absence is short-term, frequent, or turning long-term
January is a good time to introduce or reinforce a clear absence reporting process so expectations are consistent.
Step 2: Address engagement, not just attendance
High absence is often a symptom, not the root problem. If someone is disengaged, simply enforcing absence rules won’t fix it. Instead, focus on:
· Clarity
· Communication
· Feeling valued
· Feeling supported
· Simple actions that make a real difference:
· Share business priorities and goals for the year
· Explain how each role contributes
· Acknowledge the effort people put in before Christmas
· Be visible and accessible as a leader
In small businesses, employees often disengage when they feel uncertain about the future or disconnected from decision-making.
Step 3: Have early, informal conversations
If someone’s attendance or motivation has dipped don’t wait for it to become a formal problem, don’t assume laziness or lack of commitment and don’t jump straight to warnings. Instead, have a supportive, informal conversation:
· “I’ve noticed you seem a bit flat since Christmas — how are things?”
· “Is there anything making work harder at the moment?”
· “What support would help you get back on track?”
Often, these conversations surface issues early – workload pressure, confidence, personal stress, or uncertainty – before they escalate.
Step 4: Be careful with flexibility (but don’t avoid it)
January often brings requests for: temporary flexibility, adjusted hours, working from home more frequently or mental health days. Handled well, flexibility can improve engagement and reduce absence. Handled poorly, it can create resentment or inconsistency.
Key principles for SME owners:
· Be consistent and fair
· Set clear expectations and review points
· Avoid open-ended arrangements without structure
· Document agreed changes, even informally
Flexibility should support performance — not replace it.
Step 5: Re-engage managers
In many SMEs, disengagement starts with managers being overstretched, avoiding difficult conversations or too focused on delivery rather than people.
Re-set expectations around managing performance and wellbeing by encouraging regular check-ins and reminding that early intervention prevents bigger problems later.
If you are the manager:
· Ask yourself whether you’ve been present and communicative
· Consider where your own stress might be affecting the team
· Model the behaviour you want to see
Step 6: Know when absence becomes a legal risk
Post-Christmas absence can sometimes drift into long-term sickness, stress-related absence or mental health issues. At this point, it’s no longer just a morale issue, it becomes a legal and HR risk, particularly around reasonable adjustments, capability processes, discrimination claims and unfair dismissal risks.
Need advice on managing absence and disengagement in your business? We can help. Call us for friendly, jargon-free support to get your business back on track in 2026.
