Despite many Americans still out of a job, those who are still employed are staying home more and more.
CareerBuilder's annual survey on absenteeism shows 29 percent of workers have played hooky from the office at least once this year, calling in sick when they were well.
Twenty-seven percent of employers think they are seeing an increase in bogus sick excuses from employees due to continued stress and burnout caused by the weak economy.
The nationwide survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,457 U.S. hiring managers and 3,125 U.S. workers (employed full-time; not self-employed; non-government) ages 18 and over between August 17 and September 2, 2010, produced some interesting results.
While the majority of employers said they believe their workers when they say they're feeling under the weather, 29 percent reported they have checked up on an employee who called in sick and 16 percent said they have fired a worker for missing work without a proven excuse.
Of the employers who checked up on an employee, 70 percent said they required the employee to show them a doctor's note. While half called the employee at home, 18 percent had another worker call the employee and 15 percent went to the trouble of driving by the employee's house or apartment.
"Six-in-ten employers we surveyed said they let their team members use sick days for mental health days," said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. "If you need to take some time away from the office, the best way not to cause yourself more stress is to be open and honest with your manager."
"Just not feeling like going to work" is the number one reason why workers said they call off sick with made-up excuses followed by "just needing to relax" and "catching up on sleep."
Other reasons included doctor's appointments, needing to run personal errands, and plans with family and friends.
All of these, even the one about not feeling like going into work, seem relatively sane. And there's something to be said about needing a "mental health day" sometimes.
But some employees obviously can't bring themselves to admit they simply need a day to decompress.
When asked to share the most unusual excuses employees gave for missing work, employers offered the following real-life examples:
- Employee said a chicken attacked his mom.
- Employee's finger was stuck in a bowling ball.
- Employee had a hair transplant gone bad.
- Employee fell asleep at his desk while working and hit his head, causing a neck injury.
- Employee said a cow broke into her house and she had to wait for the insurance man.
- Employee's girlfriend threw a Sit 'n Spin through his living room window.
- Employee's foot was caught in the garbage disposal.
- Employee called in sick from a bar at 5 p.m. the night before.
- Employee said he wasn't feeling too clever that day.
- Employee had to mow the lawn to avoid a lawsuit from the home owner's association
- Employee called in the day after Thanksgiving because she burned her mouth on a pumpkin pie.
- Employee was in a boat on Lake Erie, ran out of gas and the coast guard towed him to the Canadian side.
So while we may not have a lot of work ethic these days, one thing the American employee has is a healthy dose of creativity.
