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Opinion: The real problem with sick leave in America

Kara  Alaimo

Editor’s Note: Kara Alaimo, an associate professor in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University, writes about issues affecting women and social media. Her book, “This Feed Is on Fire: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — And How We Can Reclaim It,” will be published by Alcove Press in 2024. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.



CNN
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Like many parents, I can’t remember the last time my children made it through an entire week of school. With the country battling a “tripledemic” of Covid-19, RSV and the flu, my family was sick for much of the fall. The week before school closed for holiday break, one of my daughters was out for four of the five days. On the day it reopened, my kids made it to lunchtime before I got the call that one of them wasn’t feeling well.

Sound familiar? So many parents and caregivers these days are sick of our kids being sick. And what’s making things even worse is the common workplace expectation that we should simply work from home when we or our kids are ill.

Officially, as of March 2022, 86% of full-time employees in the US were offered sick leave benefits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But what’s happening unofficially is another story. In our new world of remote work, my mom friends keep telling me their bosses and colleagues seem to assume they will keep working from home when their kids are sick, rather than taking the time off their employers officially offer. They say that even when they let their colleagues know they are caring for a sick child, co-workers continue to call and email, asking when certain tasks will be done or if they can hop on a Zoom call.

According to an online survey conducted in November 2021 for Beamery, a workforce management company, 65% of workers in the US and UK felt more pressure to work while sick as a result of remote work.

This is awful. First, when we’re sick, depriving ourselves of rest may prolong our illness. And when young kids are sick, we can’t give them the full attention they need if we’re distracted by work.

What’s more, the “tripledemic” we’re dealing with is requiring even more of our time because of our over-stressed health system. In…

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