Is the stress of using a sick day at your workplace worse than the actual illness you might be dealing with? If you answered “yes,” rest assured, you have lots of company.
A new survey of American workers revealed that almost 65% of U.S. workers reported feeling “stress, anxiety, guilt or fear” when an illness forces them to request a day off.
Additionally, one out of every four workers – 25% – reported at least one instance of feeling pressured by a superior to work while ill.
Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority, almost 90% of respondents, said they had worked through an illness in the workplace at least once in the last year.
Of course, for many workers, a day off means a day without pay.
Nearly 25% of private industry workers cannot count paid sick leave among their benefits, according to 2022 numbers from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
“People are getting sick and they’re deciding they’re going to work through sickness,” said Anita Grantham, head of human resources at Bamboo HR, the firm that conducted the survey. Grantham reported her observations to CBS MoneyWatch.
“In the salaried workforce people are feeling taxed, it’s a tough environment with no economic relief in sight and there’s no federalized support or care. That leads to a compounding effect which we’re seeing in the data,” Grantham said. “They’re going to work because they need their jobs, they need their benefits.”