Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140108
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LINI S. KADABA KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Gallup poll of 671 adults commissioned by Accountants on Call, a temp agency in Saddle Brook, N.J., found that one-fourth of employed Gen Xers call in sick one or two times a year when they're really not. Xers are twice as likely to feign illness as boomers (30- to 49-year-olds) and four times as likely as 50-and-older folks.
Apparently, Xers aren't dubbed slackers for nothing.
``These people are focused on quality of life,'' said Scott Snell, associate professor of business at Pennsylvania State University, ``rather than quantity of life.''
Or at least work life.
Xers, it seems, have no loyalty toward the company, especially when they find themselves in entry-level, low-paying jobs.
``There's no sense of obligation,'' Sid Kant, who will soon turn 30, said of his peers. He, himself, has called in sick once since he started working at Borders Book Shop in Philadelphia seven months ago. ``I was really sick,'' he quickly added.
Besides differences among age groups, the nationwide survey, conducted in December but released late last month, also found that part-time employees are more apt to take advantage of sick days than full-time employees and that Easterners are more likely to call in sick than residents of other regions, especially Midwesterners.
``Who knows why,'' Carter Wolf, spokesman for Accountants on Call, said of Midwestern morality. ``How can you call in sick when you work with a cow?''
But the most curious survey finding involved 18- to 29-year-olds. While 25 percent of Xers called in sick (falsely) once or twice a year, only 14 percent of 30- to 39-year-olds and 13 percent of 40- to 49-year-olds did that. Among those 50 and older, only 6 percent pulled one or two over the boss.
To be fair, this isn't a phenomenon unique to Gen Xers.
``I don't think this is a new trend,'' Snell said. According to Snell, younger workers - whether Xers or boomers - have always shown less job commitment than older workers.
``It's a life-cycle issue,'' he said.
``By the time you're 50 years old, you know what you're about, what you're doing,'' Snell said. (You also have a mortgage to pay so you'd better show up at work.)
``If you're under 30, you're trying to find out who ... you are,'' he said.
Of course, the Xers fit that stereotype to an X. While the boomers toil, Xers are searching for themselves, when they're not complaining about their underpaid, dead-end McJobs, of course.
What do Xers say for themselves?
``It's probably true,'' said Kevin Plunkett, 29, another employee at Borders. He confessed that he calls in sick when he isn't a couple of days a year, which he figured was OK because the store allows employees a certain number of sick days.
``Older people take jobs more seriously. They may need the job more,'' he said. ``By the time I'm 50, I'll be the same way.''
In the meantime, Plunkett, who has worked at Borders for 31/2 years, plans to soon teach English in a foreign country.
Of course, not all Xers are slackers.
``For me,'' said Borders employee Jim Simon, 24, wearing a plaid shirt and cool nerdy glasses, ``it's how I was raised. You go to work unless you're really sick.''
But for those twenty-somethings who do take a slide now and then, Bureau of Labor Statistics economist Jay Meisenheimer offered some solace.
First, he pointed out that Department of Labor data on absence rates do not show much difference among the age groups. Rather, he said, the stand-out fact is that married women with preschoolers miss the most work time for reasons other than illness.
Second, ``maybe,'' said the 29-year-old Meisenheimer upon hearing about the survey results, ``young people are more truthful.''
In other words, never trust anyone over 30.
``I'm dubious,'' said Accountants on Call spokesman Wolf of that interpretation of the survey. He is 48.
He added that he would never call in sick unless he was really, really sick. Honest.
Take the other day. When this reporter called about the survey, Wolf was out sick.
Surely he was really ill, right?
``Sort of,'' he mumbled.
``I am in a volunteer ambulance corps,'' Wolf explained.
He was out helping his fellow citizens until the wee hours. ``I didn't get to bed until 5:30 a.m. I called up and left a message that I wasn't feeling well.''
It's enough to make an Xer sick.
by CNB