Average number of sick days taken by public servants growing post-COVID, new data shows

Author(s): Morrison, C.

Date: 2025

Resource: CBC News.

Federal public servants were less likely to call in sick to work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, new government data shows.

The figures shared by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat indicate that in 2020-21, when the pandemic had most office employees working entirely remotely, the average number of sick days for the public service was 5.9.

That number grew to 8.1 in 2021-22, 8.8 in 2022-23 and 9.2 in 2023-24.

Most office workers stayed home to work during the pandemic for much of 2020 and 2021. While some federal office employees returned to in-person work in 2022, it was only in the first few months of 2023 that all public servants were gradually ordered back to the office for at least two or three days a week.

Before the pandemic, the data shows that public servants took an average of 9.6 sick days in 2019-20, 9.8 days in 2018-19 and 10.4 days in 2017-18. […]

Catherine Connelly, professor and business research chair in the department of human resources and management at McMaster University in Hamilton, said people who are working from home may encounter fewer germs because they’re not commuting and they’re not around their co-workers.

Connelly said there’s also the possibility that people are working from home even when they’re only a little bit sick.

“You can maybe still work, not take a sick day, but also rest extra cause you’re not commuting,” she said. “Because of that extra rest, maybe don’t get really sick, so sick that you have to take some time off.”

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