This week, host Isabel Berwick is joined by Emma Jacobs, author of one of the Financial Times’s most read features on the workplace this year: “The end of sick days: has WFH made it harder to take time off?” Along with fellow Working It regular Brooke Masters, the FT’s US investment and industries editor, they discuss why we are taking fewer sick days than ever, with more of us choosing to work through sickness. Is it a practice managers should ever encourage? They also consider readers’ and listeners’ perspectives on sick leave – has WFH, and the prospect of missing a long commute, made us more likely to call in sick? And is the growing honesty in workplaces around mental health and wellbeing changing the way we think about our need to take time off work for rest and recovery?

Want more?

Emma Jacobs’ hit FT article on sick leave

https://www.ft.com/content/bc9e39ce-8762-4e70-8aa2-2e33b23b80fe

Results of a big FT reader survey on attitudes to work and return to the office, including sick leave

https://www.ft.com/content/b5b9af97-3193-4dd6-bcb8-894ba7846e0e

FT columnist Sarah O’Connor explores punitive sick leave rules https://www.ft.com/content/8a5bccb5-ba86-4a0c-9777-d1283945106d

US retailers under pressure to disclose sick leave policies

https://www.ft.com/content/b190494e-fa0c-4b52-9f18-cf838e15ab72

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Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan and Manuela Saragosa. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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