(Not US) A lot of it is mentalities fed to people from universities too. Back when I was still in uni we had a group project, and one person was having personal

(Not US) A lot of it is mentalities fed to people from universities too. Back when I was still in uni we had a group project, and one person was having personal issues - didn't pry which but they couldn't attend for a few weeks due to what was officially listed as being sick. In exchange, other teammates picked up the slack in the meantime because y'know, trying to be a good human being to teammates is worth it on its own + mentioning this and still getting a good mark usually nets you bonus points for good teamwork (persist under challenge/pressure is a word that gets you basically free passing grades on feedback essays). She eventually returned and was able to compensate the missed work twice over for the time left in the project. We did that in spite of the fact that one of the two guiding teachers more or less started haranguing us to put pressure on that teammate to "get back to the group work", with such charming questions being asked to the non-sick teammates (ie. Me and three others) as "how many sick days do you think are acceptable" and repeated anecdotes from the guiding teacher about how "he had taken exactly one sick day in five years". (He didn't mention that he'd also been working as a freelancer for five years so "a sick day" meant absolutely nothing to him). In our case, the team as a whole decided that as long as we could get the work done, the teammates absence wasn't too big of a deal. This didn't make the guiding teacher happy to say the least, and I could totally have seen another team break under that kinda pressure/not have the spirit to stick up for their own beliefs in that thing. We did end up passing the project because the result was more than acceptable at least, but it's something worth mentioning in terms of how early it starts.