New Delhi: Americans are most likely to call in sick to work on 24 August, but illness may have little to do with it. An analysis of five years of sick leave records by the United States leave management company Flamingo found 24 August to be the most common day for employees to take sick leave. The date even beat 13 February, the second most common sick day, due to its proximity to the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day.
The pattern is particularly striking because February is the busiest month for sick leave. Flamingo found that on average 10 per cent of employees took sick leave in February, when colds and flu are more common.
The weather could once again be the reason behind sick leave in August. In much of the northern US, late August brings a brief respite from the heat and humidity of July. In major cities across the Northeast and Midwest, average highs around 24 August are about 27-28 degrees Celsius, while evenings are much cooler. For workers who have spent much of the summer at their desks, pleasant weather could make a day outdoors particularly tempting. The date also falls near the end of summer holidays in many parts of the country, giving parents and families one last window before schools reopen.
Flamingo’s list of the ten most common sick days also includes 26 June, 5 September and 25 October, suggesting that some of the biggest spikes in leave do not necessarily coincide with peak illness seasons.
The reasons employees give for taking sick leave, however, are more conventional. Stomach bugs accounted for 54 per cent of the sick leave analysed, followed by Covid-19 at 25 per cent, anxiety or stress-related conditions at nearly 9 per cent, and musculoskeletal injuries and broken bones at 6 per cent.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)