The ancient Egyptians, like us, had to ask permission from their superiors to leave work, all familiar reasons

Work-life balance is not an "exclusive" issue of modern people. As it turns out, from time immemorial, the ancient Egyptians struggled with this problem on a daily basis. Moreover, they are also closely monitored by "superiors".

A stone slab stored in the British Museum recently proves this. Accordingly, the ancient document was recorded in 1250 BC and stored the leave schedule and reason for leave of 40 employees.

A stone that stores the leave schedule of ancient Egyptian workers.

The limestone tablet is more than 3200 years old written in Ancient Egyptian script of the New Kingdom in red and black ink. The contents of each day are clearly recorded, for example "the 4th month of winter, the 24th".

That day, a worker named Pennub took time off work because his mother was sick. Another person also asked to stay home because he was not feeling well. The man named Hunefer frequently suffered from "eye pain", while his colleague Seba was bitten by a scorpion. Some other common reasons include embalming a deceased loved one.

More interestingly, there are a few reasons for taking leave that sound odd to modern people, but were extremely common to workers at the time. Brewing beer, for example, is a popular excuse. In ancient Egypt, beer was an important spiritual drink, meaning was associated with the gods, so brewing beer was a highly respected act.

There is also no shortage of reasons that "sound absurd but are quite convincing". Someone asked to stay home because "his wife or daughter is bleeding".

This is probably another way of saying the menstrual period, the archaeologist calculates. It is believed that at these times, men need to stay at home to help with the housework. While this is hardly a valid reason in modern times, we can guess that the ancient Egyptians were no less creative and "tricky".

According to many documents from this period, the most common cause of absenteeism was health problems, which accounted for about 30% of all absences at the construction site. However, the ancient Egyptian government seems to be very focused on the rights of workers, when they have a fairly developed health care system.

An illustration of an ancient Egyptian doctor taking care of a patient.

Accordingly, sick employees are still paid regularly, even if they are absent for many days. Moreover, each building has a doctor and assistant to take care of the health of colleagues.

These "medical workers" are paid extra rations. It is also believed that taking care of the health of workers is not a simple act of philanthropy of the ancient Egyptian government, but has a well-calculated and well-functioning system.