‘Sickest day of the year’: More office workers call in sick on this day than any other

More US employees call in sick on August 24 than any other day (Representational image)

August 24 has been dubbed the ‘sickest day of the year’ as more office workers in the US call in sick on this day than any other. While the holiday season around Christmas is typically associated with employees on leave, August 24 is the surprising date on which most workers call in sick.

This data comes from leave management platform Flamingo Leave Tracker, which analysed data from the last five years to come up with the result. Around 300 organisations with more than 10,000 employees in total participated in Flamingo’s study to find the sickest day of the year, according to a Bloomberg report. They found that 0.9 percent of those employees called in sick on August 24 – more so than any other day of the year.

August 24 does not fall in the middle of the influenza season in the United States, nor is it close to any major holiday, so it’s not entirely clear why this day witnesses so many sick leaves.

Employees cited stomach bug as the most common reason for calling in sick. Symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting accounted for 54 percent of all sick leaves on August 24. After that, 25 percent of staff surveyed called in sick because of Covid, while 9 percent cited stress or anxiety. Injuries like broken bones and muscle strain led to 6 percent of leaves.

Paaras Parker, chief human resources officer at payroll software company Paycor, said it was a welcome change to see workers taking mental health days. “It's not necessarily that they have strep or a fever, but that they need a day for themselves”, she told Bloomberg.

After August 24, the day that saw the most leaves is February 13 which falls close to Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl. No surprises there.