Calling in sick is now a lot more complicated

Americans are well known for being hard workers. The midday siestas and monthlong vacations so beloved in Europe don't cut it with bosses Stateside.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly one in four US private-industry workers isn't entitled to a paid sick day. But despite their industrious reputation, predominantly white-collar Americans who do receive paid time off are taking more sick leave than ever before.

The human-resources platforms Dayforce and Gusto both reported a jump last year in the amount of sick leave people were taking, based on companies they surveyed.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed workers' attitudes about sick leave, raising awareness about the importance of staying home to avoid infecting coworkers and the need to care for mental health.

But HR professionals told Business Insider there's another major shift affecting attitudes toward sick leave: the arrival of Gen Z in the office.

Rue Dooley, an HR-knowledge advisor at the Society for Human Resource Management and a Gen Xer, said his generation had been socialized and conditioned for decades to think that the more you work, the better you are as a human.

"That behavior doesn't change overnight," Dooley said. "But Gen Z has a different way of thinking and communicating."

Dooley said the young workers he speaks with feel entitled to sick leave as if it's a cultural norm. He said he believed that Gen Z workers' expectations may seem unorthodox because the differences between Gen Z and millennials are starker than generational differences in the past.

"Younger workers are behaving in such a way that it is an entitlement: 'I should get time off when I need it without having to get special permission or feeling judged or condemned,'" Dooley said.

Improved technology and connectivity also make their demands more feasible — they can be online anywhere and anytime. The downside is that the boundaries around work are blurring, Dooley said.

"But if you are strategic, conscientious, and you have access, you can be much more efficient, and you can have this work-life balance," he said. But if employers don't give in to changes, workers might not respond favorably to them.

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Pressure to keep working

In the UK, where legislation has entitled all workers to sick pay since 1983, the issue of sick leave isn't as pertinent. But that doesn't mean it hasn't changed since the pandemic.

Some data indicates that the British are taking more time off — the average number of days British workers took off for sick leave increased from 5.8 days in 2019 to 7.8 days in 2023, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a UK-based HR body, found.

But Cary Cooper, a professor of organizational psychology at the University of Manchester, said the numbers didn't reflect the full picture.

Cooper, who was until recently the institute's president, said that's because presenteeism, where employees log on but cannot function well, is also increasing.

"People that abuse the system are very small, and with jobs so insecure at the moment, they want to work and deliver for their bosses," Cooper said.

Hybrid workers can feel pressure to be seen as reliable. So where a common cold may have previously stopped them from commuting to the office, they now feel they can log on from home and work through their symptoms.

Cooper said that's an advantage for minor ailments, where you can answer a few emails and avoid falling behind. But when serious mental-health concerns arise or exhaustion from illness builds up, he said, the autonomy that hybrid work provides workers is detrimental.

"If you're very poorly, I don't think people should be working," Cooper said. "Even if they can do a few emails here and there, you really need recuperation."

How to treat a sick employee

Though some data suggests US workers are taking more sick days, they're hardly becoming slackers. In a 2023 Pew Research survey of nearly 6,000 workers who were offered PTO, 46% said they didn't take all they were owed.

Both Dooley and Cooper said the responsibility for finding a balance around sick leave lay with managers.

"True leaders grasp that in terms of productivity, it's better in the long term to allow people that time for their well-being over short-term productivity," Dooley said.

Cooper said the issue is that people are promoted to managerial roles based on their technical skills — not their people skills.

"People don't leave a job; they leave a boss," he told BI, referencing the adage. "Somebody with good emotional intelligence, who has got social and interpersonal skills, would say, 'Oh, just take the day off.'"

He said if that's not a boss' natural tendency or they prioritize meeting quarterly targets over the team's welfare, then executives should emphasize that keeping people engaged and feeling valued are more important. If that's not happening, he said you should raise it in your performance review.

New legislation is also forcing the issue in some states. In January, California increased the minimum number of days for paid sick leave from three to five.

"The fact that there are states that are doing that suggests to me that there's more to come," Dooley said. "It's an easy win for politicians."