Everybody knows you’re doing it. Your boss knows, your co-workers know, your cat definitely knows – pulling a sickie is the greatest charade of our time.
Thankfully, it’s still one that a huge portion of us are willing to enter into, as we put on our best sick voice – usually somewhere between a mild cold and Sly Stallone – and call one in. In a recent poll, bosses have revealed what the best and worst excuses are for calling in sick.
Having the flu was by far the best way to get time off with 41 percent of those polled saying it was an acceptable excuse. Following that, 38 percent agreed that having back pain or an injury caused by an accident was worthy of time off.
Bosses were found to be less sympathetic to those suffering from stress, depression or anxiety, while almost none thought that having a cold or migraine was good enough to keep you at home.
In a parallel survey, 1,000 employees were asked if they would lie to their bosses about being ill, and a whopping 70 percent would tell a porkie and say they physically couldn’t make it to work.
Glen Parkinson of AXA PPP Healthcare says:
Employers need to challenge this blinkered attitude, both for their own benefit as well as that of their employees. In many cases it is more productive for an employee to take a day off to recover from a spell of illness rather than to come into work, with diminished productivity and, for likes of colds and flu, the potential to spread their illness to workmates.
Glen get’s it – sick days for everyone!
Mark is the Gaming Editor for UNILAD. Having grown up a gaming addict, he’s been deeply entrenched in culture and spends time away from work playing as much as possible. Mark studied music at University and found a love for journalism through going to local gigs and writing about them for local and national publications.