Days off cost lives!
Inside spread of the WPB absenteeism leaflet: line drawings of illness, accidents, bad housing, poor transportation, child care, shopping problems and ration board hours, beside the headline 'Days Off Cost Lives!' and a text that separates involuntary from voluntary absences. The headline links lost days to deaths; the text lists reasons for absence before asking for fewer voluntary days.
Propaganda techniques used in this leaflet
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- War Production Board, War Production Drive Headquarters (Labor-Management Committee)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Leaflet
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Labor, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
War Production Board. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-483B (NAID 513964).
Text on the object
DAYS OFF COST LIVES! ILLNESS ACCIDENTS BAD HOUSING POOR TRANSPORTATION Very few of us have a 100 percent attendance record. Most of us miss a day now and then. Many of us miss work more often-too often. Sometimes it's our fault and sometimes it isn't. But in either case work doesn't get done-necessary war work. Your joint labor-management committee wants to cut down absenteeism . . . wants to wipe out the absentee bugs that have been biting us. And your committee needs your help. Here's our program of attack: 1. Find the root causes of absenteeism. 2. Eradicate them. On both points we must enlist your support. The drawings on these two pages illustrate the chief cause of absenteeism in most war plants. Accidents and illness are the biggest causes. Then come housing and transportation troubles; child care and other home problems; shopping and ration board headaches. There are other causes, too . . . including fatigue, shortage of materials, and other interruptions to production. These involuntary causes are the most prevalent absentee bugs in war plants. We must find out which of them are biting into production here-and then we must devise ways and means to lick them. All of us, working together. What about other causes of absences? We need your help here, too-for, frankly, these other causes are chiefly your problem. Most absences have contributing and understandable causes. They are involuntary. But some absences are voluntary. These voluntary days off must be cut down if production is to be pushed up! Why? Because there's a war to be won-and won quickly. QUICKLY AND COMPLETELY. Every Day Counts! DAYS OFF COST LIVES! CHILD CARE SHOPPING PROBLEMS RATION BOARD RATION BOARD HOURS Don't Let the ABSENTEE BUGS Get You . . . . . [handwritten:] 44-PA 483B
