When I first stepped into management as a young, inpatient bar manager, I wasn’t prepared for how much staff absence would dominate my time and energy. One missing bartender during a Friday night rush could throw the entire rota off.

And the worst part? No one seemed to track it properly, let alone understand why it was happening.

We didn’t have advanced HR systems or apps despite working in a busy, high-turnover environment. So, I created a simple but effective absence tracker using Google Sheets.

📊 Why It Worked

The tracker allowed me to:

• Log every absence as it happened (date, reason, person)
• Highlight frequent short-term absences
• Identify trends: particular days of the week, or staff burning out after intense weeks
• Visualise how absences were impacting team performance

Over time, patterns started to emerge. Some staff consistently missed the cheeky Friday or Saturday. Others took sick leave after every payday. It wasn’t about “catching people out” but more about getting ahead of a problem which was costing time, morale, and revenue.

📚 What the Research Says

According to the CIPD’s Health and Wellbeing at Work Report (2023), short-term absence is still one of the most challenging issues facing managers, especially in frontline industries. While digital absence management tools exist, access, cost, and usability can be barriers for smaller businesses.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also reports that work-related stress, burnout, and mental health are top causes of long-term absence, something I could start to see reflected in my team just from tracking patterns.

🧠 What I Learned

This experience taught me that:

• Good management starts with visibility. If you don’t track it, you can’t manage it.
• You don’t need complex tech to make informed decisions; a spreadsheet and consistency go a long way.