Nearly a third of U.S. employees recently polled by Harris admitted to faking a sick day at least once in the last year, said Reuters. Some excuses are particularly outlandish. “One woman claimed she got whiplash from brushing her hair.” Another stayed home because a psychic had warned her that something awful might happen if she went, “and a man said he had nothing to wear because his roommate had locked all his clothes in a shed.” Most bosses say they believe employees who call in sick. But 35 percent have checked up on absentee workers, and 16 percent have fired staffers who missed work for no good reason.
If you’re fortunate enough to have a boss who is a human being, just be
honest and say you need the day off, said Matthew Kirdahy in Forbes. “Managers appear more amenable nowadays to requests for these unscheduled days off.” If you must lie, don’t try to overcompensate for the fib by listing every symptom in the book, says Addie Johnson, author of The Little Book of Big Excuses. Tell the boss you don’t feel well and get on with your last-minute vacation day.
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