The toxic culture is coming from the outside. They have no reason to trust you, because dozens of corporations institute wellness programs and talk about caring while still punishing people who take time off. Plus, some of them have just internalized the idea that they should just work through it.

One thing I have heard can help is if the boss takes time off, so since you have some authority, maybe make a point of taking your own time off and telling them when you do?

Send them home when they do this. It's taking care of your other employees, while teaching them that it's ok to call in sick, since they will be sent home anyway.

First of all, I agree with you and applaud you advocating for sick time off and letting production goals slip to prioritize wellness.

There are reasons people would come to work anyway, and I'm not justifying or excusing or even agreeing with it, just explaining different factors:

• they might not want to admit that they're sick, so if they're able to come in and get through the workday, then they're not sick sick.
• they might be too comfortable in their routines to want to disrupt them for "just a cold" or whatever
• you may not pressure them, but their peers may pressure them
• they might have a strong will to "not let the team down"
• depending on pay structure, maybe using sick time negates what would've been OT, so they make less money even though it's paid sick time
• depending on bonus/raise/promotion metrics, calling out may impact advancement opportunities
• some people define themselves via their occupation, so being sick at home gives them a sort of existential crisis and makes them feel like useless lumps of shit?
• they want to impress a higher up (maybe even you) that they'll sacrifice their own well-being to achieve
• they're fucking morons who learned absolutely nothing from the pandemic that was way too recent to have already been forgotten
• the coffee at work is that damn good
• they hate their family and want to get away
• their family hates them and told them to fuck off and they had nowhere else to go
• if they're able to cash out PTO and/or sick time, maybe that's what they're aiming to do
• they think you're cute and don't want to spend even a single day at home away from your cute face

But in all seriousness (and I know I'm preaching to the choir because you already agree), studies show that productivity is higher when people call out one at a time compared to infecting the whole staff. Don't back down on this issue. You might not be able to send people home when they're sick, but I'm sure you can be direct and say something like:

"Flu season is upon us. I know for a fact that many of us will be getting sick over the next 3 months or so. When (not if) I get sick, I will be using sick time to be at home, resting and getting better and ensuring that I don't spread it to anybody in here. I encourage each and every one of you to do the same. I care more about our health and safety than I do about productivity and goals. I would rather lose you for a day or two than lose half our staff at once for a week. Be self aware and proactive. If I had my way, nobody would even be allowed in the building if they had so much as a case of the sniffles. Take care of us all by taking care of yourself."

I don’t give people grief for it.

They expect you to. The only way you can communicate that you don't is by giving people grief for coming sick. That will force them to look at their environment and decide what to do, if you don't, they'll just pick the safe option that works everywhere.

It sucks, but it's a required part of managing.

Yeah, I don't understand the mentality of people who brag about never taking a sick day. So you came into work and spread whatever communicable disease you had at the time to your coworkers and then, they to their families how many times? Great job!

A BJ for calling in sick? I'm pretty sure that covers both definitions of "perverse incentive" 😄

Years of Corpo Approved socially public funded education experience gets you really used to all the forced trauma of the bells and whistles and 'knowing your place' was a common schoolground chant to STFU and obey.

My current job is great about leave requests, but it's taken me three years to finally get comfortable using it. Every other job I had would either make a fuss or guilt workers for using leave.

On top of that, I had the idea that you have to go to school or work sick unless you can't get up passed down to me from my parents. They meant well. They were teaching me how to deal with the types of work environments they knew.

Toxic work culture can be so widespread that it sticks with you.

How are your team members supposed to know weather you are "super cool" about that or if it is just the (regular) corporate speak?