YOUR editorial "Sick as a Tyke", (May 27) goes along with the prevailing wisdom that workers who phone in sick must be slackers suffering self-induced hangovers.

This theory may be popular with bosses (oddly enough!) but there is another explanation.

Could increased illness result from the extreme stress of most modern jobs? Could it be that Yorkshire people have too much common sense to struggle into work when actually ill?

Ben Drake,

Danum Road,

Fulford, York.

Updated: 10:37 Thursday, May 29, 2003