Reward or Punish?

A Grown-Up Approach to Taking Sick Days

Workplace psychologist Kenneth N. Siegel says the hypercompetitive North American work environment is creating a “culture of germs” in which genuinely sick employees are going to work when they should be staying at home.

He also says that the traditional concept of sick days is demotivating for good employees and obsolete as a program to police the abusers of sick time. Good employees are made to feel guilty, which causes many to report for work when they are sick, posing a health hazard for co-workers.