The New York Times has a piece about “The Death of the Sick Day,” about how

the sick day is disappearing from the office vocabulary, even as we hit peak flu season. Once, a sick day was just that — a day away from work to focus on recovery…. But in recent years, it has become something murkier in definition and more reflective of our highly competitive, 24-7 work lives. The shifting definition and expanding mobility of the office — thanks to remote work and the rise of contractors in the gig economy — is also making the sick day somewhat passé, at least for some jobs.

The fact that many people feel that their jobs would be at risk if they took off a day to recover from an illness is a painful indicator of the state of modern work.

It also brought to mind something I’ve kept hearing when interviewing people whose companies run 4-day weeks: their sick days go way down. They argue that first of all, their people are healthier. They have more time to exercise and cook real food, which means their baseline levels of health and disease resistance go up. As a result, they’re just sick less often, and when they are, the three-day weekend gives them a greater chance of resting and keeping a mild illness from turning into something more serious.

You could also add that having a 4-day week means that they’re also more likely to be able to deal with other family members’ illness, without having to call in themselves.

And of course, we should contrast this situation to the health of people who chronically overwork and deal with stress in the office: they’re much more likely to get sick, to have chronic or stress-related illnesses, and to cost companies (or the national health service) in the long run.