Lifestyle Workplace
Younger employees especially are calling in sick more than they used to, and some employers say it’s costing them money
By Te-Ping Chen
Updated Oct. 18, 2023 11:53 am ET
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The bar for taking a sick day is getting lower, and some bosses say that’s a problem.
U.S. workers have long viewed an unwillingness to take sick days as a badge of honor. That’s a laurel workers care much less about these days. The number of sick days Americans take annually has soared since the pandemic, employee payroll data show. Covid-19 and a rise in illnesses such as RSV, which can require days away from work, are one reason. Managers and human-resources executives also attribute the jump to a bigger shift in the way many Americans relate to their jobs.
For one, more workers are using up sick time often for reasons such as mental health. And unlike older workers, who might have been loath to call in sick for fear of seeming weak or unreliable, younger workers feel more entitled to take full advantage of the benefits they’ve been given, executives and recruiters say. That confidence has only grown as record low unemployment persists.
So far this year, 30% of white-collar workers with access to paid leave have taken sick time, up from 21% in 2019, according to data from payroll and benefits software company Gusto. Employees between ages 25 and 34 are taking sick days most often, with their use rates jumping 45% from before the pandemic. Some employers, such as Stellantis, complain such worker absences are driving up costs. The Detroit carmaker has repeatedly brought up the issue as contract talks with the United Auto Workers proceed, saying it lost 10.9% of hourly worker time in 2022 because of unplanned absenteeism.
Darren Smith at a football game with his son. After years of muscling through illness at work, Smith says his view on sick time has changed. Photo: Darren Smith
Before the pandemic, Darren Smith muscled through any illness. At one point, the 50-year-old project manager fell asleep at work while on medication for a shattered ankle, waking up to keyboard indentations on his face. Then in 2020, he was laid off.
“That was my epiphany,” says Smith, who now works at a West Chicago-based pump-repair facility as a project manager. “I gave you everything, and you kicked me to the street.”
On a recent Monday, after working a few hours, Smith sent his boss a message asking if he could take a half-day sick. His boss gave permission, and Smith walked out.
“It was a gorgeous day, I just wasn’t in the mood to work,” he says.
Younger generations in front
Younger workers used to follow the example of their older peers and come in even when under the weather, says Crystal Williams, chief human resources officer at global business payments company Fleetcor
, which has around 5,000 U.S. employees. She suspects early-career employees aren’t taking cues from older co-workers in the same way now that five days a week at the office is no longer the norm.
Prepandemic, Fleetcor workers in their 20s and 30s took one or two sick days a year, she says. Now, it’s more like three to five.
“The accounting team is not happy with me providing this time off, because it’s a liability for the company,” she says of the extra cost of sometimes adding staffing to ensure adequate coverage amid absences.
Photo Illustration: Rachel Mendelson/The Wall Street Journal, iStock
Donna Ruscingno, who leads a team of around 20 employees as chief accounting officer at real-estate company LivingNY, says she thinks job-hopping has made workers feel less guilty about calling in sick and leaving co-workers to pick up their slack.
“If you don’t stay long enough to build camaraderie with co-workers, you’re more apt to take the time,” says Ruscingno, adding that she sees more younger workers, in particular, taking all their sick days. “I don’t think there’s the same work ethic.”
Sick days are rising even though telework has made it easier for workers to stay online while under the weather.
“I’m not contagious via Zoom, though maybe I’m sniffling or coughing,” says Kenneth Matos, a global director at employee analytics software company Culture Amp. Companies can benefit if workers still field emails and take meetings when they previously would have taken the day off, Matos says. On the other hand, workers miss out on needed rest and are less effective while working ill: “It’s virtual presenteeism.”
A broader idea of a sick day
Lisa Frydenlund, who until this month was an HR officer managing around 300 employees at two senior-services agencies in Sacramento, Calif., welcomes the more expansive attitude toward sick time. She recently used a sick day after a series of frustrating encounters with new workplace software.
Lisa Frydenlund recently used a sick day after experiencing a series of frustrations at work. Photo: Lisa Frydenlund
“I told my boss, I hit a wall, I can’t be here,” she says, adding that stress can trigger migraines for her. “I wasn’t going to be purposeful, so why come in?”
Sick days now cover kids’ and family needs too, says David Setzkorn, disability practice leader at Sedgwick, a large administrator of leave claims for employers. Many states have passed laws in the past decade requiring employers to grant sick days to tend to family members, too, and now more than 80% of private companies with paid time off do so, he estimates. More companies also provide unlimited sick time than did a decade ago, so fewer employees feel they have to scrimp.
A still-tight labor market means companies can’t be grouchy when employees call in sick, says Kerri Dye, who until recently managed several Starbucks
locations in Sacramento. Dye says that she makes a point of encouraging workers to use sick days for less conventional reasons, such as recuperating after a travel-intensive vacation. “You get such loyalty and buy-in from your team when you show them you care,” she says.
Early in her career at another employer, Dye says she once passed out in the bin of an industrial ice maker at an airport cafe after showing up to work with pneumonia. Her boss was put off by the suggestion that she stay home to recover, she says. “It was like I had suggested I drown a bag of kittens.” Dye left the job not long after.
More employers are coming to view sick days as a benefit to help workers cope with the unexpected—whether that’s parental health issues, school closures or a more run-of-the-mill employee cold, says Rich Fuerstenberg, senior partner in the health and benefits practice at consulting firm Mercer.
“It’s a much more expansive catchall,” he says.