Did You Call Out Sick Today? You’re Not Alone

Author Morty

August 24th, 2023 11:02 AM

We've all been there before: the dreaded sick day. But, did you know there's one day that is "more sick" than the other days in the year?

We all have sick days that we hold for the moments that we really need them.

Some people use them as a “day off.” But then, there’s apparently one day where everyone is statistically sicker compared to other days in the year. And guess what day it is? Yup it’s today.

The One Day Everyone Is Sick

Research was done by leave management platform Flamingo, who has an employee tracker. They found that Aug. 24 is the “Sickest Day of The Year,” according to an article by Firstpost.com. How did they come to this conclusion? The company collected five years of data. After looking through all the results, they found a common denominator among the companies and employees. Aug. 24 was the most common date across the country that workers called in sick.

Why Of All Days Is It This Date?

The data showed that due to the weather change for summer, this could possibly be a contributing factor to the mass number of sick days. The article said people seemed to not show up for work and called out more in late summer days in comparison to the start of winter. They said employees call out mainly because of colds and flus.

The Reasons For The Sick Days

We already know the results on the one day that has the most people calling out sick. But is there a reason for other dates to be popular among those taking sick days? They found that Feb. 13 comes in at second place for the most sick days taken. The article says it’s also weather-related, but they also suspect it has to do with it being close to Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl.

We’ve always said the day after the Super Bowl should be a day off. After stuffing your face with junk food and drinking too much, the last thing we want to do is wake up the next morning for work. So what do we do? We call out sick. Most companies know what’s really going on. I’m actually shocked it’s not the #1 day.

How Do You Call Out Sick?

The results of the survey showed that more than half of the people that called out didn’t want to have any vocal communication. So, they call out by using text and WhatsApp. And it’s very low, but 2% of the “sick” people didn’t even tell their boss they’re gonna be out sick.

We have more on this story in today’s edition of a Few Things You Should Know!

Morty is the Executive Producer of “The Mike And Carla Morning Show” on 96.3 KKLZ. He's been a part of the show and station for 5 years. Aside from producing the morning show, he has served as production director for over 20 years. Those commercials you hear between the music, he produced a lot of them for Las Vegas! He loves music, playing guitar, all things Vegas Golden Knights, the Steelers, and his English Bulldog, Squish! He will talk forever with you on any of these things! Morty writes about peculiar news stories and Las Vegas happenings.

'Super Sick Monday' - Where Nevada Ranks

Super Sick Monday has probably been around as long as the Super Bowl. Though now we have an actual name for it. Super Sick Monday is the day after the Super Bowl, when many Americans call in sick to work. And while most use the excuse that they’re (cough cough) “sick”, we know the real reason.

But which states are more guilty than others of calling in sick the day after the big game. That’s the question we wanted to find out. This year we expected three states specifically to be on the top of the list. Missouri/Kansas*, since all those Chiefs fans were up late celebrating their big win. Pennsylvania, since those fans are inevitably too depressed today to work. And Arizona, where the game was held, assuming those locals were taking advantage of being there.

* A word about the whole “Missouri/Kansas” thing. While the Chiefs technically operate out of Missouri and Arrowhead Stadium is technically in Missouri, Kansas residents claim the Chiefs as their team. Kansas City straddles the line between the two states. But we didn’t want to leave Missouri out either, for technicality reasons. But you can see from the list which state really was up late partying last night. Missouri wasn’t even in the Top 25.

Moving on…It’s surprising who did top this list. The list comes from research done by Betway. They did an analysis of Google search data. They took note of each state and people in those states googling terms having to do with calling in sick to work. Not sure why you’d have to google that, but okay. Terms like “calling in sick” or “sick from work” were counted by state and ranked in order of the most googling done this weekend. Stats courtesy of a representative from Connective 3.

So where does Nevada rank on the list? More importantly, how will our spot on the list compare this year to next. Since Super Bowl 2024 is being held at our own Allegiant Stadium. Maybe just call in sick to work now if you’re an employee in Las Vegas.

– Wendy Rush

1. West Virginia

Google searches per 100,000 people: 35.28
2. Kansas

Google searches per 100,000 people: 29.27
3. Arizona

Google searches per 100,000 people: 24.36
4. Wyoming

Google searches per 100,000 people: 15.53
5. Pennsylvania

Google searches per 100,000 people: 12.14
6. Hawaii

Not sure we can blame the big game on this one. If this was my backyard, I wouldn’t want to go to work either.

Google searches per 100,000 people: 11.75
7. North Dakota

Google searches per 100,000 people: 11.57
8. New Hampshire

Google searches per 100,000 people: 10.09
9. South Dakota

Google searches per 100,000 people: 10.04
10. Montana

Google searches per 100,000 people: 9.94
11. Oregon

Google searches per 100,000 people: 9.63
12. Alaska

Google searches per 100,000 people: 9.53
13. Vermont

Google searches per 100,000 people: 9.27
14. Rhode Island

Google searches per 100,000 people: 9.12
15. New Mexico

Google searches per 100,000 people: 8.98
16. Delaware

Google searches per 100,000 people: 8.96
17. Nevada

Google searches per 100,000 people: 8.90