(Daniel Victor/ New York Times) — When Elle Fraser, a business operations assistant for the New Jersey Devils, came down with the flu just before Thanksgiving last year, she didn’t think about staying home from work.
The hockey team had home games on Wednesday and Friday that week, and she worried that her work would never get done without her, even if she had a 103-degree fever.
She toughed it out, alternating between chills and sweats, falling asleep at her desk, wiping down every surface she touched, and insisting to co-workers she was wearing mittens to handle tickets only because she was cold.
On that Wednesday, Ms. Fraser, 23, worked from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Thanksgiving Day, she slept most of the day. The next day, she went back to work, just as sick as she was on Wednesday.
Sure, she technically had a choice to use a sick day and stay home, but that was not how she saw it. She thought she didn’t really have a choice. (…)