Omicron drives surge of workers calling in sick, working through illness

A U.S. Census Bureau survey conducted in early January said almost 8.8 million people were out of work because they were sick or caring for someone with symptoms of Covid-19. That is by far the highest such figure in the bureau’s “household pulse” survey since it began in mid-2020, exceeding the 6.6 million recorded in January 2021 and three million from December’s survey. The number of people reporting that they weren’t working due to concern about getting or spreading coronavirus rose to 3.2 million in the January survey from 2.6 million in December.

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A separate survey by The Shift Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School found that nearly two-thirds of workers who reported being sick in the last month during the survey period said they worked through the illness. The survey included 6,600 hourly workers who were polled from September to November. People cited financial reasons as the top reason they worked while sick, followed by not wanting to let down co-workers and fear of reprisals…

“Workers rely on [scheduling] managers for shifts and hours,” said Daniel Schneider, professor of public policy and sociology at Harvard University and co-director of The Shift Project. “There is this real fear of doing things that antagonize that person or make their life harder—calling out [sick] does not help.”

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