photo credit: flickr
Playing hooky isn’t just for Ferris Bueller. A new survey from Harris Interactive finds that in the past year 30% of workers have called in sick when not actually ill. Sick days, legitimate or otherwise, also become more frequent around the winter holidays, with nearly one-third of employers reporting more employees call in sick during the holiday season. Other findings:
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29% of employers have checked on an employee to verify that the illness is legitimate, usually by requiring a doctor’s note or calling the employee later in the day. Some employers have had other employees call a suspected faker (18%), and some have gone so far as to drive by the employee’s home (14%).
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17% of employers have fired employees for giving a fake excuse.
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31% of employers notice an uptick in sick days around the winter holidays. This helps make December the most popular month to call in sick, with 20% saying their employees call in the most during that month. July is the next most popular month to skip work, followed by January and February.
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Next to actually being sick, the most common reasons employees call in sick are because they just don’t feel like going to work (34%) and because they felt like they needed to relax (29%). Others take the day off so they can make it to a doctor’s appointment (22%), catch up on sleep (16%), or run some errands (15%).
Excuses, Excuses
Some workers come up with slightly more colorful explanations for their absences. When asked to share the most memorable excuses, employers reported the following real-life examples:
- Employee’s sobriety tool wouldn’t allow the car to start.
- Employee forgot he had been hired for the job.
- Employee said her dog was having a nervous breakdown.
- Employee’s dead grandmother was being exhumed for a police investigation.
- Employee’s toe was stuck in a faucet.
- Employee said a bird bit her.
- Employee was upset after watching “The Hunger Games.”
- Employee got sick from reading too much.
- Employee was suffering from a broken heart.
- Employee’s hair turned orange from dying at home.
