Is 8 sick days too much

Job-Genie flags this as a context-dependent question — not a CV problem on its own. Eight sick days sits within the UK average of 5–7 days per year, so it is slightly above typical but not alarming. The real issue is how absence is disclosed, framed, or inadvertently signalled on a CV or in a recruiter conversation.

When Eight Sick Days Becomes a Problem

Sick days do not appear on a CV — but the consequences sometimes do. Employment gaps, shortened tenures, or a pattern of role exits can raise recruiter questions that indirectly surface attendance history. This is where the Recruiter-Fit Gap widens: a candidate may present strongly on skills but trigger concern through details a specialist recruiter reads between the lines.

What Recruiters Actually Screen For

Specialist recruiters shortlisting for the hidden job market are not counting sick days — they are assessing reliability signals. Those signals come from:

- Consistent tenure and progression
- Clear, confident narrative in a Recruiter-Ready Brief
- A CV that does not raise unanswered questions

If absence history has created a gap or a departure, the Truth Layer rewrite process ensures that context is framed accurately and professionally — without concealment and without over-explanation.

What You Should Not Do

- Do not volunteer sick day counts unprompted in applications
- Do not let an above-average absence year create Application Silence by leaving unexplained gaps
- Do not assume eight days is disqualifying — most recruiters never see raw attendance data at shortlist stage

Job-Genie's Take

Job-Genie's Application Silence Score measures why applications go unanswered. Attendance history rarely drives that score directly — but poorly explained employment gaps caused by health periods can. The solution is precise, recruiter-language framing, not anxiety about a number. Eight sick days is not too much. An unexplained six-month gap might be.