Europe by and large doesn't know the concept of "sick days". When you get sick, you stay home. If you get cancer, you stay off work for a year if necessary. In

Europe by and large doesn't know the concept of "sick days". When you get sick, you stay home. If you get cancer, you stay off work for a year if necessary. In my country, there's a system to reimburse companies for their costs after a certain number of sick days–3 weeks I believe. That protects smaller companies, who might otherwise get into serious trouble if, say, one of three employees can no longer work but still gets a salary. Of course there are trade-offs involved. It does cost some money, and it does add a bit of bureaucracy. Some abuse may also happen, although by and large it's rather low–there are some 'social' control mechanisms, and the data pretty clearly shows that absenteeism is directly linked to employee satisfaction.