New research has revealed that your employee that called in sick this morning is likely to be pulling a fast one.
In a survey of 10,000 office workers from across the UK, FreeOfficeFinder found that almost a third admitted to lying about taking time off sick in the past 12 months.
Of those that admitted they had lied, 42% said they had fibbed on more than one occasion. The most common reason was a hangover, as 47% admitted to skipping a day due to a few too many. Some 15% said they had skipped a day for no reason in particular.
The survey found that women were more likely to pull a sickie – with 37% of female respondents confessing, compared to 25% of men. Surprisingly, it was the older age groups that had lied to take a day off, as 46% of 31-35 year olds and 41% of 36+ group admitting their crime, compared to only 21% of 18-25 year olds.
Adrian Lewis, director at Activ Absense said: “It can be really difficult for companies to crack down on people lying about being sick, but one thing they can do is ensure they have the right systems in place for tracking absence, and having greater transparency can be a good deterrent.
“Investing in absence management software can help companies monitor trends, such as someone regularly taking a Friday or Monday off or flag up employees with ongoing health issues. Having this information at their fingertips enables managers to investigate and speak to the individual to find out if there are any underlying issues and look at how they could offer support.”