Nearly 75% of men in manual labour and construction will soldier on with the flu while at work

Men in manual labour jobs such as construction are among the biggest fighters in Britain when it comes to battling cold and flu, a new survey by Beechams reveals.


Thomas Lane
Still at work... but media workers are mostly likely to be pole-axed by the flu

The hardy bunch came out on top as 72% of workers who had a cold in the last 12 months said they struggled on, compared to 47% of media types.

Britain’s most resilient fighters were most likely to be male workers in manufacturing or manual labour, aged between 45 and 55 and living in or near Newcastle.

Women in media aged between 18 and 24 working in Nottingham, Brighton and London were revealed as the country’s biggest wimps when it comes to battling an attack of the sniffles.

When asked why they carried on as normal, 39% of manufacturing and manual labour workers said it was because they “refused to let illness beat them.”

One in six have not had a day off in the past year due to cold and flu and not one of them said they would exaggerate their symptoms to get a little sympathy.

This fighting spirit contrasts with a third in the IT industry and a quarter working in hospitality and travel who said they used their symptoms to gain sympathy and avoid going to work.