That’s how adults are treated in most public sector employers outside of CAF.
“Hey boss, sorry to drop you a line this early, I came down with something overnight and I feel like shit. Won’t be in today, not sure about tomorrow yet but I’ll let you know”.
“Oh that sucks, ok. Get better!”
Generally after a few days or a week you need a doctor’s note to continue. Do some people abuse it for non-illness? Sure, sometimes. It’s a finite amount and those people sometimes leave themselves in a lurch when they DO get seriously ill.
For the majority who use it as intended, when they come down sick it means they can roll back over in bed and rest up rather than getting dressed, bringing whatever illness they have into a public setting, and getting some doctor or nurse to confirm that yup, they are in fact hacking up a lung and yup, they should in fact lie down, rest, and hydrate. It also means we aren’t wasting clinicians’ time getting notes because we’re down with a three days cold.