Study Reveals People Feel Pressured To Work While Sick, But Why?
The reality is that many people continue to work while they are sick. You have workers who use their sick days without hesitation and those who feel guilty when even considering taking a sick day. Think about how many times you heard someone coughing while walking down the hallway, sneezing in the middle of the meeting, or loudly blowing their nose three feet away from you.
According to a 2019 report from Robert Half Direct, an online platform that allows hiring managers to control the hiring process, 57% of employees sometimes go to work while sick, and 33% always go to work while sick, which means that as many as 90% of workers go to work while under the weather.
Work while sick.
In a more recent study, they found that the average American spends about 84 hours a year working while under the weather. The survey of 2,000 conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Nectar Allergy, looked at the effect of both colds and allergies on work, as well as Americans’ social lives and their wallets.
Also, revealed by the study is that the average person works ten and a half days per year while feeling under the weather, on average. About 47% admit they’d rather “power through” than take a sick day. For some, they may be more inclined to “power through,” as they’re worried others may think they’re “dramatic” when they’re feeling unwell (34%).
Have you ever heard someone make a negative comment about one of your coworkers being sick? Well, 48% of those surveyed remember a negative comment someone else made about how frequently they feel unwell, either due to allergies or other conditions and illnesses, and over a quarter of those surveyed (26%) said in their friend group or family, they feel like they’re the person who is most often sick or feeling unwell.
A sick day for work versus skipping an event due to illness.
The study shows that in an average year, respondents miss 17 social events because they feel unwell. While a cold, the flu, or other sickness (40%) was the biggest cause of respondents missing out on social events, allergies (33%) also played a role for a third of respondents. In fact, half of all respondents (49%) suffer from yearlong or seasonal airborne allergies.
“It’s disheartening to see how much pressure people feel to work while sick,” said Kenneth Chahine, Ph.D., chief executive officer and co-founder of Nectar Allergy. “According to the study, over half of people with allergies (54%) said they’re worried about not being able to tell the difference between allergy symptoms and a contagious cold,” he added.
So why are we pressured to cave into working while sick?
SUCCESS, a personal and professional development guide says that it all comes down to fear of job insecurity and blurred boundaries between work and personal life. “Employees feel more obligated to work now they are at home, so they work longer hours and employers allow it,” they said.
Some Redditors said they choose to go to work sick because their sick days are bundled with their PTO. Others mentioned that it costs more to be sick because they straight up don’t get paid sick days.
Take a look at some more insights from the survey here.
