Gen X Wasn't Raised As Part Of The Sick Day Generation — 'We Were Raised To Push Through, Not Call Out'
Our generation rarely took sick days — we got told to toughen up and keep going.
insta_photos | Shutterstock On alternate Friday mornings for the past five-plus years, the woman in charge of payroll drops off a written notice that I will soon exceed the allowable amount of vacation days that one can accumulate at the city where I work.
The city’s policy is that you can accumulate a maximum of twice the amount you earn in a year. In my case, this is twenty-five days per year, meaning I can accrue up to fifty days or 400 hours.
I used to receive the same notice years ago when my totals were fifteen days per year and thirty days total (240 hours). The city allows us to cash out a maximum of ten vacation days annually, which I have been doing for the past ten or so years.
Sure, I have taken vacations here and there, but Gen X people like me weren't raised as part of the sick day generation.
For the most part, I have been a nose-to-the-grindstone guy. I have been here the most than anyone in my department, including the City Manager and the Deputy City Manager. However, they respond to emails and calls at all hours, while I typically do not.
Ironically, it was largely due to a late work friend who rarely took a day off for many years preceding me, besides annual trips to Vegas, typically on someone else’s dime, that our city limited the amount we could cash out to ten, but that’s another story. He had close ties to someone at the Bellagio, so his stay there was comped.
He would cash out twenty days at a time, resulting in more than two additional paychecks (since insurance is not deducted from these checks). This extra pay would cause the department’s budget to exceed its allotment by a small percentage, since he was not the only inspector doing it. Thus, the policy changed so that everyone did not start earning nearly eight percent more than their position had been budgeted for.
So here I am, my job in serious jeopardy after grinding away at it for many years due to an incoming mayor who idolizes President Musk and Trump’s DOGE system. This is not where I envisioned my life at this time, had you asked me five years ago. Two proverbs come to mind in my case:
- The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry
- Man proposes, God disposes
It is very much the same with my approach to sick days. Like many government offices, our city grants us one sick day per month for a total of twelve per year.
As with our vacation days, we are allowed to cash out a limited amount of sick time, but at half pay. I won’t bore you with every detail, but most years I cash out the maximum allowable, which is six.
In my current job, you can accumulate an endless number of sick days, and one may find it either impressive or sad that I now have over 150 sick days on the books.
Yuri A / Shutterstock
The last one I took was about a year ago, when my flight home from visiting my son in Denver was canceled and I spent a sleepless night on a chair and flying the next day when I was supposed to be back at work. Ironically, it did make me feel a tad bit sick.
Before that, I had not taken an entire sick day for a few years. Just an hour or two here and there for doctor’s appointments or taking my mother to hers.
In all, I have taken plus-or-minus twenty-something sick days in nearly twenty years working for the city. But I have dragged my sorry butt into work while feeling sick too many times to count, easily hundreds of times by now.
The way I was raised, one does not text in sick if you have a major developer or business coming in from out of town to meet with you.
baranq / Shutterstock
One cannot text in sick if you have a city council meeting that night and have to make a presentation or are staffing your city’s Economic Development Committee meeting.
So there are three days and nights per month right there when missing work would be highly frowned upon. But that would not stop many, if any, Gen-Zers where I work.
But the Millennial and Gen-Z colleagues I work with will text in sick at the drop of a hat.
Some have worked here for a few years and have no sick days on the books. They rarely come in for two weeks straight without missing a day.
I share this about my work ethic, which most likely won’t save me from getting DOGE-d anyway, to contrast it with that of the newest generation in the workforce and to confirm the gist of this story that popped into my feed and piqued my interest.
Although I am a Gen Xer and not a Boomer, I, too, fit into the Generation Never-Called-in-Sick attitude as detailed in a Business Insider article.
Also, I should admit to being a superstitious person. I have witnessed too many coincidences in my life and have seen people’s words and actions work against them. It has happened to me, which is to say that I don’t want to become sick. One of the few things that I am good at and known for is walking a lot, and one of my great fears is not being able to.
Not only do I walk through some marginal areas at night that would be wiser to avoid, but I also cross some of the busiest roads in the Chicago suburbs. I have almost been run over quite a few times.
Also, considering the possibility of my imminent dismissal, I want to keep as many sick days on the books as possible. I might not even cash out my allotment this year.
Previously, I shared my goal of remaining gainfully employed with my city until at least the summer of 2027, which is over two long, difficult years from now.
Although I live and work within the State of Illinois, our pension system is not the broken state one. Ours is well-run and well-funded, and covers us municipal folks. It also credits retirees with an additional month of service credit for every 20 sick days on the books at the time of retirement.
Currently having 151 sick days on the books, I sure would like to remain in my current position for at least the next nine months, which would get me past the minimum retirement age.
If I could go those nine months without taking a sick day, I could leave with 160 on the books and an additional eight months' worth of credit.
Alternatively, I could take a bunch of them, which might help my mental health, and go for seven additional months’ worth of credit. Although I am not personally a member of the Generation That Never Called in Sick, my Greatest Generation role models — my grandfathers — fit the mold to a tee.
Their work ethic must have rubbed off on me. As they say, “The branch doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Both of my grandfathers worked themselves up from the gutter, one growing up very poor with his family, the other on his own from a very young age, like ten years old. Both worked their way up from rags to the upper-middle class through sheer determination and never missing a day of work for decades.
I shall remain a hard-working grinder who doesn't call in sick for several more years.
Call in sick when my throat is scratchy, stomach aches, have a mild headache, a case of the runs, zero sleep, or even if I have a (low) fever? That I will never do.
Bernard Bloom is a middle-aged middle-class family man with an interest in personal finance and investing, among other things. By day, he has been an economic development professional since 2000. Before that, he served as a Cook County Adult Probation Officer.
