One employee blamed the ozone for causing his tires to flatten. Another employee said a drug dealer’s friend mugged him because he was going to testify against said drug dealer. And one employee had to go to her hair stylist because her roots were showing and she “looked like a mess.”
CareerBuilder surveyed more than 3,100 full-time workers and more than 2,500 full-time hiring and human resource managers from Aug. 11 to Sept. 7. Other excuses included becoming “deathly ill” after eating cat food that an employee thought was tuna, having to take care of a sick llama, becoming traumatized after having to face off with a big spider at home and getting hit by a duck.
More than 33% of employers discovered their employees were lying by perusing social media. “Of those, 27% have actually fired the employee, but 55% are more forgiving, only reprimanding the employee for the lie,” according to CareerBuilder. For the 33% of employers who said they had investigated why their employees called in sick, 68% said they asked for a doctor's note and 43% called the employee.
“As many as 185 of employers went the extra mile and drove past the employee’s house,” CareerBuilder notes.