A little tweak here a little pull here. We’ve all fancied it at one time or another. If going under the knife is too drastic then perhaps a little botox? Everyone loves a bit of botulinum injected into their soft tissues, it does wonders for the complexion; smoothing things out and getting rid of those annoying little lines. It’s toxic atonement for ones transgressions.

These days more and more people are having “work done”. If figures published by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) are anything to go by, the UK is following in the footsteps of the US. Last year Americans spent more than $13 bn (£6.6 bn) on 11.7 million cosmetic and non-cosmetic procedures. In Britain, alone, the number of procedures increased by 12.2% in 2007.

That number doesn’t even include people who are choosing to have surgical procedures done abroad, in places like Eastern Europe, where prices are comparitively cheaper.

But as an employer how would you deal with it?

Statuary Sick Pay (SSP) still has to paid to a person if they are recovering from surgery. The nature of the surgery, it would seem, is irrelevant. It can come down to something as confusing as semantics. If you consider payments on a case-by-case basis a company can still decide that sick pay is not warranted.

Just to add more confusion into the mix. There’s a grey area when the surgery is elective and when employers treat each claim on a discretionary basis. Saying that, when an employee is disabled, as may be the case after major cosmetic surgery, an employer would have to pay out according to the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act.

To top it all, depending on the reasons for the surgery, an employer who doesn’t grant SSP or holiday pay could become subject to age or sexual discrimination claims from disgruntled employees.

It makes sense. Facial surgery boosts a person’s self esteem, which makes productiveity increase, profits go up and the boss is happy. Congrats all round.

Which is something to bear in mind, I suppose, if I ever fancy that dermabrasion in Hungary.