Malissa Clark, associate professor and industrial/organizational psychologist in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ psychology department, spoke with Business Insider to discuss the ways Gen Z employees are redefining sick days.
The amount of time people take off from their jobs has steadily increased over the past few years. In 2023, sick leave was up by 55% when compared with 2019. While employees of all ages are taking more time away from work, a study found that it’s young people who are driving the change.
“If they take that sick day, hopefully they can just fully rest and then recover more quickly. But if they drag it out and they’re working at the same time and not fully resting, it’s actually going to harm them,” said Clark. “By the downstream effects, it’s going to affect their performance, and so it’s going to affect the organization.”
While Clark does recognize that sick days are a way that workers can set boundaries with their employers, she warns against setting boundaries too harshly.
“Boundaries are healthy, but you also don’t want to set them so hard you boundary yourself into unemployment,” she said.
