What Your Sick Leave Culture Really Reveals
This week started rough - allow me to begin with a PSA…
I don't know where I got it, whether I should have washed that tomato more, or if I used a cutting board that hadn't gotten clean enough in the dishwasher after cutting up raw meat. Or it could be that new restaurant I tried. Or that coffee shop. Or something else altogether. Symptoms show up anywhere from 8 to 72 hours after being exposed.
What I do know is that while I lay in bed on Saturday night, my entire torso cramped up in the first throes of… You guessed it... Salmonella.
I've never had this terrible, awful, no-good, very bad experience before, and I am here to remind you to take extra care to avoid it yourself. Wash your fruit and vegetables with extra care, don't leave that cheese out, and double-triple wash that cutting board after cutting up raw meat. I will spare you most of the details about why you really want to do these things (though did you know that while the main infection lasts 4-7 days, the diarrhea can last up to 30 days?) - but trust me, the extra time and soap are worth it!
As I was lying in bed on Monday morning, clearly not able to work, I was reminiscing about the days when sick leave paid for me to be ill. The entrepreneur world doesn't include that benefit. And it also dawned on me that how a leader handles sick leave is an absolute litmus test of the work culture they have created.
I'm not talking about policy - most organizations have similar policies about sick leave. I'm talking about how sick leave is approached and how using it is actually perceived.
The litmus test of a culture is what happens when you are sick.
In a strong culture:
🔑 Your boss trusts that when you say you need to use sick leave, you need to use sick leave
🔑 The team automatically steps in and takes care of things, without bothering you
🔑 They check in to make sure you are OK, not to see when you're coming back
🔑 Your boss trusts that when you say you need to use sick leave, you need to use sick leave
🔑 The team automatically steps in and takes care of things, without bothering you
🔑 They check in to make sure you are OK, not to see when you're coming back
In a weak culture:
❌ You have to justify WHY you're using sick leave
❌ People call and text for "just one thing"
❌ Everything grinds to a halt in your absence
❌ You're pressured to prove you're really sick
❌ You have to justify WHY you're using sick leave
❌ People call and text for "just one thing"
❌ Everything grinds to a halt in your absence
❌ You're pressured to prove you're really sick
Just yesterday (June 3, 2025), Harvard Business Review published research confirming what many of us have experienced: Nearly 90% of U.S. employees work while sick, even when they have sick leave available. This costs businesses $150 billion annually - 10 times more than absenteeism! The problem isn't policy. It's culture.
Let me tell you about the supervisor who got this right. When I came down with pneumonia and was out for almost two weeks, my supervisor Windi checked in with me daily - because she was actually worried about me. I offered to get a doctor's note, and she laughed and said, "Don't worry about it - I have no doubt you need to use these sick days." She made sure my work was covered and forbade me from working. It was exactly what my overachiever brain needed to hear.
That experience taught me something crucial: How you handle sick leave as a leader directly shapes your team's behavior.
Before Windi taught me to stop, I was always the one in bed with my laptop, trying to answer emails coherently with a fever. It wasn't healthy, and I was setting the expectation for my team that they had to do the same.
When you send emails while sick, you're telling your team that being "always on" matters more than their health. Leaders who model healthy sick leave usage create cultures where:
- Employees actually rest when sick and return more productive
- Teams develop better backup systems and cross-training
- People stay longer because they feel valued and protected
- Everyone performs better because they're not running on fumes
Building a team that trusts you starts with showing them you trust them to take care of themselves.
Your Leadership Challenge: This week, I challenge you to this: If you feel even slightly under the weather, stay home. See what happens. Notice what fears come up, and notice how your team actually responds. The results might surprise you.
How do you handle it when your employees are sick? Do you make them feel bad or create space for them to get well? The answer reveals everything about your leadership culture.
Sick leave is just one piece of building a strong leadership culture - and great cultures happen when leaders have the support and tools they need to make decisions like this with confidence. If you're ready to unlock the leadership skills that create thriving, trust-based teams, message me to learn about the Leadership Locksmith System.
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