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Some say a sick day shouldn’t be so easy to take.
Sir Charlie Mayfield, a senior government advisor in the UK and former boss at John Lewis (a British high-end department store chain), recently shared that he wants to “change the norms” when it comes to taking off sick from work.
In a recent interview with The Times, Mayfield said that workers should actually have to call their boss with the news that they are not feeling well and will be out of the in-person or virtual office for the day, rather than shoot a quick text or WhatsApp message before disappearing back to bed — or any secret fun planned for the day.
He added that it’s “very important” to establish an active dialogue between the employer and employee.
“So you can’t just text, send a WhatsApp, or send an email,” said Mayfield. “You’ve actually got to ring somebody up.”
Mayfield has been leading a government-funded investigation on the 300,000 people who call out of work every year due to health conditions in the UK, often due to mental health issues.
His report on the subject, titled “Keep Britain Working,” found that there’s been a whopping 77 percent increase in the amount of 16- to 24-year-olds reporting health conditions that quash their ability to get their jobs done, with mental health conditions making up almost half that number.
Mayfield emphasized that he wants to end the “culture of fear” that keeps managers from following up with employees to see how they are when they’ve announced they won’t be in, due to worries about formal complaints being filed by the employee.
His proposed solution is a more open dialogue between employers and employees, where both can feel more comfortable speaking about sickness, both physical and mental, and make “return to work” plans together, which may involve mental health treatment or finding different roles altogether.
“It gives you the opportunity to have a conversation,” said Mayfield. “To say, I’m really sorry to hear that. How long is this going to be for? Is there something we can do about it?”
He also added that managers must “change the norm” so that sick days are squelched, so that it’s “almost never the case that you should be allowed to be off sick without being in contact with your employer.”
Frequent sick days aren’t a workplace issue issue just across the pond. A study conducted by Jama Network published in 2025 found that U.S. workers have called in sick more often since before the COVID-19 pandemic, with health-related work absences skyrocketing to a whopping 1.29 million sick days per month.
The researchers said the findings should create “a new baseline” to affect public policy, adding that “policymakers should consider expanding interventions and data collection efforts to address the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the labor force.”
