Half of U.S. Workers Admit to Calling In Sick Because of Stress

The concept of the "mental health day"-calling in sick when you're too stressed to come to work, or just in desperate need of a day off--is a common one among salaried workers in the U.S. But a new survey commissioned by The Workforce Institute at Kronos, which makes time and attendance software, shows that it's actually Chinese workers who are most likely to call in sick when they're not. And compared to Americans or Chinese, French workers hardly ever take a mental health day.

The survey didn't compare workers' willingness to take a mental health day with the amount of paid leave they were entitled to. But it's worth noting that Chinese workers generally get from one to three weeks off, depending on their seniority, while French workers--the least likely to take mental health days--get from seven to nine weeks' paid leave each year. Time to move, right?

The specifics:

• Chinese workers are most likely to call in sick when physically, they're okay. Some 71 percent of Chinese workers admitted calling in sick when they're not.
• American workers are about average in their willingness to call in sick when they're not. Some 52 percent of American workers said they have called in sick when they were not ill. That compares to 62 percent in India, 58 percent in Australia, 52 percent in Canada, 43 percent in Great Britain, and 38 percent in Mexico.
• Why call in sick? Stress. In every country, the most common reason for calling in sick without a physical ailment was that the employee was overly stressed. 71 percent of Canadians and 52 percent of Americans cited this as their reason for calling in sick, compared to just 44 percent of Indians. Other reasons for calling in sick included taking care of a sick child, having too heavy a workload, and not having enough paid leave.
• The great destressor: The boob tube. In every country, workers were most likely to say they spent their day off crashed out in front of the TV. Except for India and Mexico, the second most popular activity was staying in bed. In Indian and Mexico, the second most popular activity of "sick" employees was to meet up with friends or relatives.
• No one likes it when someone else calls in sick. Even those who called in 'sick' themselves said they didn't like it when co-workers did it. Most frequently, that's because they then had to pick up the slack. In other cases, a colleague's absence added to everyone else's stress.

Do you call in sick if you get overwhelmed by workplace stress? And what impact does it have when your colleagues call in sick?

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