Workers take sick days for personal reasons

NEW YORK — More workers are taking sick days for family and personal reasons rather than illness, at a rising cost to employers, a new study says. \nOnly a third of unscheduled days off are because of illness, according to the survey by CCH Inc. But more workers are calling in absent because of family issues, stress and personal needs in what could be a sign of changing attitudes since last year's terrorist attacks, the company said. \nThe survey, of personnel officers at 333 U.S. companies, found that the overall rate of unscheduled absences has remained about the same in recent years. \nBut unscheduled absences because of family issues increased from 21 percent two years ago to 24 percent this year and absences due to stress jumped from 5 percent to 12 percent over the same period. \n"I think it's a change in mentality that says the job is important ... but that I have another priority in my life and I have to fit that in,'' said Lori Rosen, an analyst with CCH, a Riverwoods, Ill.-based business information publisher. CCH has conducted the survey annually for 12 years. \nEven though the absence rate is virtually unchanged, the cost to employers has continued to rise sharply, the survey found. This year, such absences cost $789 for the average employee over the course of the year, companies reported. That is up from $610 in 2000 and $755 last year. \nEmployers were not surveyed about the reason for the increasing costs. CCH said it probably reflects rising health care insurance costs, salaries and wages that had been rising steadily until the economy went into a downturn. \nThere may be other explanations, as well. Employers have pushed relentlessly in recent years to keep payrolls lean and improve productivity, leaving them with just enough workers to get business done. \nThat leaves companies less able to replace workers when they're absent and drives up costs, said Helen Darling, president of the Washington Business Group on Health, an alliance of 175 large employers focused on healthcare costs. \nWhen an employer is faced with an unscheduled absence of a worker, managers also frequently will have to call in a temporary replacement or substitute, which also drives up costs. \nThat was long the case at Owen County State Bank in Spencer, Ind., where managers scrambled to call in backup tellers and customer service representatives whenever they called in sick, said Ruth Jones, the bank's assistant vice president. \nIn 1998, the bank changed its policy, subbing a set number of vacation days and sick days for a system in which all employees accrue paid time off, which they can use for any reason. As a result, workers who used to call in sick for personal reasons, now are scheduling many of those days off in advance, Jones said. \nThat arrangement has proven particularly useful since last September, as employees rethought their priorities outside work. \n"Some were spending more time with their families, doing things with them ... going places that they always wanted to go,'' Jones said. "Feeling more urgency to do things that they had always wanted to do, but put off.''