We are returning back from a relaxing Labor Day weekend and are very much looking forward to this week! Optis President, Archie Anderson will be a guest speaker on [DriveThruHR](http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drivethruhr/2013/09/06/archie-anderson-at-lunch-with-drivethruhr) this Friday, September 6 at 11:00 am MST / 12 pm CST, and will be speaking with co-hosts William Tincup, SPHR, Bryan Wempen and Nisha Raghavan. The entire speaker line up at DriveThruHR this week is awesome, to say the least. Here are the guests speakers:
+ Tuesday – Steve Boese | [@SteveBoese](https://twitter.com/SteveBoese)
+ Wednesday – Christopher Fields | [@new_resource](https://twitter.com/new_resource)
+ Thursday – Jennifer Miller | [@JenniferVMiller](https://twitter.com/JenniferVMiller)
+ Friday – Archie Anderson | [@archieoptis](https://twitter.com/archieoptis)
On Friday, Archie will be speaking about several aspects of employee absence – the costs, the risks, what employee absenteeism looks like today and why it’s keeping HR up at night. Here are a few tidbits of information about employee absence before the show –
+ Absence is expensive – it costs U.S. employers $100 billion annually
+ Employee leave is increasing – 16.5% of the entire workforce used FMLA in an 18-month period
+ Leave is hard on your staff – 63% of HR professionals report morale problems with employees covering for absent employees
You can follow the DriveThruHR conversation on twitter at [#DTHR](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23dthr&src=typd&mode=realtime). We’ll be listening all week!
Archie Anderson at Lunch with DriveThruHR this Friday, Sept. 6
