Super Sick Monday is here

It’s “Super Sick Monday” – the day after the Super Bowl – and offices and Zoom meetings are about to be a little more sparse (*cue tumbleweeds blowing*). About 10% of workers in America, or 16.1 million employees, are expected to miss work today, according to a recent report from The Harris Poll and UKG Workforce Institute.

Some other data from the report:

• This year, about 6 million US employees (~4% of all workers) will risk a workplace penalty for faking sick or ghosting work (not showing up).
• About 14.5 million US employees admitted that they’ve called in sick to work when they weren’t actually sick on the Monday after the Super Bowl – including over 1 in 10 people managers (11%).

Big picture: Less people are expected to miss work this year than in 2023. An estimated 18.8 million people missed work the Monday after last year’s Super Bowl.

But, but, but: There are still some Charlie Day-style wildcards out there. About 6.4 million US employees plan to go into work late (4% of workers), another 11.2 million say they’re “not sure” whether they’ll miss work (7%), and an additional 6.4 million (4%) will decide at the last minute what to do.

🤔 Could Super Sick Monday become a holiday?... Multiple petitions and even some state lawmakers are pushing to make the Monday following the Super Bowl an official holiday – which, if it happens, would be super sick.