When twice the usual number of employees call out sick — and it happens on Super Bowl Sunday — is it a case of couch potato fever? Or, as union representatives suggested in one case, was it burnout because of staff cutbacks? You make the call.
The city of Atlanta had to close five of its fire stations on Super Bowl Sunday because 27 firefighters called in sick. The average number of firefighters out sick on any given day is 13.
Enough staffers reported to work the following day to keep all the stations open.
City Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran blamed the temporary closures on a combination of staffing reductions, hiring freezes and furloughs, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Cochran said firefighters call in sick more often on a weekend with a holiday or big event like the Super Bowl. However, he said he didn’t believe this was an organized action.
The head of the firefighter union, Lt. Jim Daws, said staffers called in sick because they get “burned out” by having fewer co-workers. Atlanta has also done away with overtime for firefighters to bridge temporary staffing problems.
Minimum staffing to operate is 147 firefighters. On Sunday there were 131 on duty.
Daws says there wasn’t Super Bowl-related goofing off. He said the larger number of absences is the consequence of budget cuts.
Cochran said, “Some of our members genuinely are sick.”
Can employers prevent this?
Some companies have developed policies to prevent employees from using sick days around long holiday weekends. Example: To earn holiday pay, employees must work the entire workday before and the day after the holiday. Exceptions can be made when an employee asks ahead of time to use a vacation day or if the worker can produce a doctor’s note.
Has your company ever experienced a problem with workers taking sick days before or after a holiday, or on the day of a big event, such as the Super Bowl? Did you have more employees call out the day after the Super Bowl, possibly nursing hangovers? And does your company have a policy to prevent this sort of thing from happening? Let us know in the Comments Box below.
