Generation Z is twice as likely to 'pull a sickie' and stay home when they are not ill as over-55s

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 06:20 EDT, 29 August 2026 | Updated: 06:30 EDT, 29 August 2026 Gen Z employees are almost twice as likely to take sick days when they do not need them compared to their colleagues aged 55 or older.Just over 80 per cent of workers under 25 said they took a sick day in the last year when they were not too unwell to work, compared to 43 per cent of staff aged 55 to 64.And almost 40 per cent of under-25s admitted to calling in sick on five days when they could have worked in the past year – compared to just one in ten older workers, the online survey by Merlin Strategy for the Centre for Social Justice think tank found.Gen Z has come to be known for being less committed to their work compared with older generations and less invested in traditional methods.A 2022 job-seeker survey found the top priority for Gen Z workers was salary, compared to millennials who were more focused on career progression and personal development.And earlier this month research found almost half those aged 18 to 29 going through a so-called quarter-life crisis.Researchers from the University of Greenwich said such a crisis was a 'turning point' lasting several years in which life was 'noticeably more difficult, stressful and unstable than normal', and then asked if they were experiencing it.Some 14 per cent said they were struggling with adult independence and 18 per cent said they were in crisis because of uncertainty about their future opportunities. Young workers were much more likely than their older colleagues to take a sick day when they felt well enough to go to work, research foundStudy leader Professor Oliver Robinson said: 'We talk about a midlife crisis, when people start questioning their lives... and can make big decisions like changing career or getting a divorce.'There is also a later-life crisis, which older people feel around retirement and children leaving home.'But the quarter-life crisis comes at a similar time of transition, when young people are also feeling "locked out" of opportunities like jobs, and worried about the future, or "locked in" to choices they've already made which might be the wrong ones.'They are trying to figure out who they are and often navigating relationship problems and break-ups.'According to the CSJ research, reported by The Telegraph, almost 80 per cent of under-25s said being 'too tired' contributed to taking unnecessary time off compared to half that number among workers aged 55 to 64.And just over half of workers under 25 said social reasons including a late night or hangover had played a role in taking time off 'sick' compared to 19 per cent of their older colleagues.Among the top issues for Gen Z employees is housing problems, with almost two thirds of people in their early 20s living with their parents last year, according to the Resolution Foundation.Unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds stood at 16.2 per cent according to the latest official figures as young people sent dozens of applications to no avail.Almost one million young people were out of work in the three months to June, according to the Office for National Statistics, as Alan Milburn published his interim report on those classed as not in education, employment or training (NEETs) in May.Mr Milburn found young Neets were more likely to be economically inactive than unemployed, amid increasing amounts of health-based inactivity due to anxiety, depression or neurodevelopmental conditions.And he said he rejected the 'sometimes cruel' myths about a generation with no interest in work and said Gen Z was 'not lazier' but rather 'different in ways that have material consequences'.