Though it can take a person some 10 days to fully recover from a cold, approximately 10 percent of full-time workers in the U.S. get no sick days. (Photo: Shutterstock)
It's not just a matter of whether they feel well enough to work, or whether they have sick days. The boss's attitude about whether workers should take sick days or not can determine whether they actually do stay home when they're sick, or instead come to work to spread their germs to all and sundry.
A new study from Farah & Farah finds that even though it can take a person some 10 days to fully recover from a cold, approximately 10 percent of full-time workers in the U.S. get no sick days at all (part-timers don't usually get them either), while more than 1 in 4 have to make do with between 1 and 5 sick days. Just 18 percent get enough sick time to actually recover from that cold—between 11 and 15 days.
Related: Please, (cough) just call in sick
The amount (or presence) of sick time varies from industry to industry, with government and public administration providing the most (an average of 12.1) and both hotel, food services and hospitality and manufacturing providing the least (an average of 5.4 for the hospitality industry and 5.1 for manufacturing). Some lucky souls actually get unlimited sick days, although even then they don't always use them.
Regardless of industry, or quantity, just because workers get sick days it doesn't mean they use them. Workers often worry that they'll be discouraged from using them, with employers who may provide them but not encourage employees to stay home when ill. In fact, 38 percent of workers show up to work whether they're contagious or not. Sadly for the people they encounter at work, the most likely to do so are in hospitality, medical and health care, and transportation. Plenty of germ-spreading to be done in those professions!
And their employers' attitudes play a role in how satisfied they are with their jobs. Among those who work for the 34 percent of bosses who encourage sick employees to stay home, 43 percent said they're satisfied with their jobs in general. Among those who work for the 47 percent of bosses who are neutral about the use of sick days, that drops to 21 percent—and among the unfortunate workers who work for the 19 percent of bosses who actually discourage workers from staying home while ill, just 12 percent were satisfied with their jobs.
When it comes to mental health days (no, not that kind; the ones people really need to deal with diagnosed mental health conditions), fewer than 1 in 10 men and women were willing to call in sick. Taking “mental health days” when physically healthy, however, either to play hooky or simply have a vacation from the office, is something that 15 percent of respondents admitted to.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
