"Oh, you have a fever. Better stay home."
The truth is that less than 10% of the "sick days" I had during school were genuine, and the same percentage of days I presume hold true in the adult working world. Since leaving home I have only had 1 sick day and that was when I had food poisoning. Beyond that I've gone to work sick, tired, perhaps a little hung over, but only once in 15 years did I ever take a sick day. Ergo, the following chart isn't a measure of relative healthy, but relative propensity to lie.
9 comments:
Did not expect to see Bulgaria/Portugal topping the list ...
Thought those scandinavian welfare states like sweden and norway would be a shoe in for top 2.
You should use this chart whenever you discuss the American health care system.
"Well, if the system is so bad, why is it Europe is losing more worker productivity from illness than America is?"
You guys know that you should take sick days if you're sick, right? Otherwise you'll make other people sick and the whole system'll ultimately be less productive.
What do you think about the paid sick leave Healthy Families Act?
National Review on HFA
I never took a sick day until I had kids. School and day care are better factories for weapons grade viruses and bacteria then any secret government lab out there.
I haven't been that sick since...well, since I was a kid.
Still even with the plague invading my house once in a while, I've still only taken 3 sick days in the past two years.
well, I believe that your single and childless state actually improves your health. So, your ratio of real to fake might be a little different.
Parents with children are exposed to more illness in general so count that in your list of reasons why not to have kids.
The last time I took a sick day was about ten years ago when I had such a severe cold with sneezing that I kicked off a nasty nose bleed. Went to the Doc in the morning, who cauterized it and packed it, but the sneezing continued and broke it open again in the early afternoon. He cauterized and packed it again and it broke open again. Doc then directed me to go to the ER, where after throwing up several pints of blood, they stopped the bleed, gave me something to knock me (and the sneezing) out and kept me for observation overnight. In the morning they ordered me to go home and rest, since I had lost so much blood.
Now, since then first I have to be near dead to not go to work and second, when I'm that sick, I work from home. If I'm really bad off and can't work from home, I take comp time, not sick time.
It would be interesting to see where India places on the list. I think I remember reading something about how they have a problem with workers almost never taking sick days.
It really depends some people will take days off if they are a bit sick to avoid infecting others or aggravating their condtion, others are just plain lying. Folks in some nations may be more prone to lying others may just be prudent, after all working when your sick is bad for your health.
Japan has a free health care system, and they have very very few sick days so the health care system of a country isn’t much of a factor whern it comes to sick days.
I think it has more to do culture since Japanese men in particular seem to have a habit of working themselves to death. Being a workaholic is a major fatal illness there.
Post a Comment