Employers suspecting employees of faking a sicky have used different tactics to investigate the absence, especially if the employee is a chronic offender. These include requiring a doctor's note (29%), calling the employee (19%), having another employee call the employee (7%) or checking the employee's personal social networking page (6%).
Tony Roy, president of CareerBuilder EMEA, said: "If you lie about the reason for needing time off, you can seriously hurt your credibility with your employer. The vast majority of employers - 79 % - enable workers to use sick days for mental health days to rest, recharge and return more productive, so your best bet is to be up-front and honest with your manager."
When asked to share examples of the most unusual excuses they received from workers calling in sick, employers in Europe reported the following:
· Employee's foot was stuck in the toilet
· Employee said someone threw a garden gnome through his window
· Employee claimed to be attacked by a shark
· Employee witnessed someone being pushed under a train
· Employee had a nightmare and felt out of sorts
· Employee was intoxicated by burning vines
· Employee got her finger stuck in a car door
· Employee injured his leg chasing his dog to prevent it from attacking a rabbit
· Employee had to take his mother shopping
An online survey of 757 business leaders in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden was conducted in a range of organisations between 17 November and 17 December 2010. The UK sample size was 194.
Business leaders included C-level executives, directors and senior managers with recruitment responsibilities. The survey was conducted online for CareerBuilder by Shape the Future, a market research agency based in East Sussex, which specialises in high-speed online research.
