SICK DAYS BECOMING PANACEA FOR WORKERS.

Byline: Kathy Bergen Chicago Tribune 

Carl Fitzpatrick, a software developer for the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund in Oak Brook, looks back on a prolonged crunch period at work and remembers stretches ``when for weeks on end, it seemed like I was always sick.''

Though he had piles of accrued sick time, he rarely called in sick. ``I'd just take something and try to stick it out,'' he recalls.

These days, he has lots of company. Visit just about any workplace as the autumn pollens settle in after Labor Day, and there will be plenty of employees sneezing, sniffling and coughing their way through the workday.

What gives here? Have Americans become so work-driven, or so fearful of job loss, that they feel it's impermissible to stay home to nurse a cold?

The short answer is yes, according to employee benefits experts, human resource managers and employees themselves. A recent absenteeism survey by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. indicated increased cautiousness among workers.

But the full explanation goes way beyond that. And it raises questions about whether the ``sick day'' concept, as in days off for personal illness, is an anachronism - a notion made almost laughable as employees report for work when they are ill and call in sick when they are well.

Indeed, a recent national survey of 574 human resources executives by Riverwoods, Ill.-based CCH Inc. indicated that while the overall absenteeism rate this year is unchanged from last, the reasons for unscheduled absences are shifting dramatically.

Employees cited personal illness just 28 percent of the time, down from 45 percent a year earlier. On the upswing, the survey found, were absences for personal needs, for stress or just because employees felt, ``Hey, I'm entitled.''

In part, the shift reflects greater honesty in reporting, as companies give workers more flexibility to take time when they need it.

During a time when families often are headed by two working parents, or by a single working parent, employees seem to be using allotted sick days for a wide range of pressing needs: tending to sick kids or parents, waiting for a furnace to be repaired, mopping a flooded basement, going to a dental appointment or signing a mortgage.

Some things just have to get done during the workweek, and it seems they are getting done on ``sick days.''

``I'm fortunate to have good health,'' says Martin Gartzman, 43, director of outreach programs for the University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Mathematics and Science Education.

``When I do take sick days,'' says the father of three whose wife works as a social worker, ``it's because one of the kids is sick or there's no school that day and there's no child care available.''

Similarly, software developer Fitzpatrick, 47, has a young daughter and a wife who works as a psychotherapist, so he generally saves his sick days for when his daughter is ill. Layered beneath this practicality is an awareness that downsizing, while not yet a threat at his office, is a fact of life in his industry.

``I'd be reluctant to let things go and take sick time when I don't need it or do anything that would make me feel less needed by them,'' he says.

Others see less reason for caution. In high-pressure, deadline-oriented industries, or at corporations where restructuring and downsizing have left remaining employees stressed to the max, workers are using sick days as mental health days or, more bluntly, as fun days.

``Ad people, especially, use sick days for fun days,'' says an art director at the Chicago office of DDB Needham Worldwide who asks to remain anonymous. ``It's a ghost town here on Fridays over the summer.''

The art director, who is in her 30s, says she generally uses her sick days for the beach, a long weekend or to nurse a hangover from a late-night concert. And she notes it's not even necessary to fake a cough when calling in sick, because taking downtime in the ad business is accepted, at least tacitly.

``When we make new-business pitches, it's nonstop for two weeks - nights, weekends, whatever it takes to make a deadline. . . . Then the boss will say to take a day off. They know we need to chill and regroup so we'll be fresh for the next round they put us through.''

``The conclusion we're reaching,'' says Paul Gibson, managing editor of human resources publications for CCH, referring to the firm's survey, ``is that traditional sick-leave policies are not addressing the reasons people take unscheduled absences.''

A small, but growing, number of employers is reaching the same conclusion, and is reacting by instituting banks of paid time off, in which an employee's sick, personal and vacation days are lumped into one pool which can be drawn upon as needed, for whatever reason.

At some companies, employees view these sorts of plans, at least initially, as take-aways because the total number of days in the bank often are fewer than the individual components, added together, had been. But proponents say most workers in traditional allotted sick-day plans don't take the maximum number of days, so they are actually coming out even, or ahead of the game, if they use all their paid time off.

The goal is to reduce the number of unscheduled absences; the idea is that an employee who knows of a special event coming up, say a child's piano recital, can schedule a day off in advance rather than calling in ``sick'' the day of the event, leaving the boss and co-workers scrambling.

``The bundling allows employees to be honest, so there can be a better relationship between an employer and employee,'' says Sarah Bornstein, director of personnel services at Roosevelt University, which has a paid time-off policy in place for its 160-member clerical staff.

Because of downsizing, employers are growing increasingly aware of the strain caused by unscheduled absences, says consultant Maura Cawley.

``There used to be a built-in labor pool to pick up the slack when people were gone,'' notes Cawley, who works in the Chicago office of employee-benefits consultant William M. Mercer Inc. ``That excess is gone now, so when people are gone with unscheduled absences, it is felt much more.

``If a company needs to get temporaries or pay for overtime,'' she says, ``it's very expensive - 1.5 to 2 times your normal labor costs - so it affects profitability.''

She says more employers are putting strict attendance policies into place, many of which spell out specific penalties, be they written warnings or placement on probation, if unscheduled absences exceed limits. Sometimes these plans are put in place in conjunction with a paid time-off bank, and sometimes not.

In fact, some companies with paid time-off banks are finding they are hardly a panacea, and other firms have no use whatsoever for newfangled notions about time off.

Promac Inc., an Elgin, Ill.-based promotional marketing firm with 150 employees, allows its staff members five sick-personal days a year, for whatever reason.

The company is finding, however, that ``quite a few employees use the five days within the first two months of the year,'' and then request more days off later, says Lisa Suthers, human resources manager.

Suthers notes the company generally gives workers the added sick days, but usually without pay. She says that the firm needs to look further at its policy.

At Products Unlimited Inc., a Sterling-based maker of electrical controls with 800 employees at five factory locations, there is no provision for personal time off.

``Personal time is what we call in the industry a `Go to hell day,' '' said Jack Peterson, director of human resources. ``It's when you wake up in the morning, and you don't feel like coming to work, so you take personal time.

``When you're in the kind of industry we are, where you have production schedules and quotas you need to meet, it's not an acceptable policy for us.''

Nevertheless, a movement toward greater flexibility in time-off arrangements appears to be the wave of the future, particularly in sectors such as high technology, where demand is strong for highly skilled personnel.

Lori Wallach, human resources manager at Postal Systems Inc., a Chicago-based division of Bell & Howell Co. which makes postal automation equipment, sees a younger generation coming up in the workplace which is willing to work exceptionally hard, in exchange for some time off.

``We're peak performers,'' she said. ``We're doing everything that is expected, and more. As a result, people are saying, `What are you going to give me to make it worth it?' If it's just wages, it's not really going to cut it.''

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Chart: (Color) Not-so-sick days

More employees are using si ck days for reasons other than personal illness, according to a national survey of 574 human resources executives.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Graphics Network