New Excuses for Calling Out of Work

Many workers aren’t above taking a sick day despite having a clean bill of health, according to a CareerBuilder’s annual survey.

Thirty-eight percent of employees have called in to work sick when they’re feeling well in the past year, up from 28% last year. Of the employees who have called in sick when feeling well, 27% said they had a doctor’s appointment, the same proportion said they just didn’t feel like going, 26% said they needed to relax, 21% said they needed to catch up on sleep and 12% blamed bad weather.

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Of the 52% of employees who have a Paid Time Off (PTO) program that allows them to use their time off however they choose, 27% say they still feel obligated to make up an excuse for taking a day off (compared to 23% last year). Of these employees who have a PTO program, 32% of those ages 18 to 34 say they still feel obligated to make up an excuse, compared to 20% of those 55 and older.

On the other hand, some feel they can’t afford to use a sick day, even when they’re ill. More than half of employees (54%) say they have gone into work when sick because they felt the work wouldn’t get done otherwise. Further, nearly half (48%) say they can’t afford to miss a day of pay, up from 38% last year.

NEXT: Busted for faking sick

The most popular months for employees to call in sick continue to be December (20%), January (15%) and February (14%), on par with last year’s survey results. And while less than one in 10 employees (9%) say they have ever faked being sick during the holidays, those that do most often say it’s to spend time with family and friends (68%), while others wanted to holiday shop (21%) or decorate for the season (9%).

While most employers claim to trust their employees, one in three (33%) have checked to see if an employee was telling the truth after calling in sick this year, compared to 31% last year. Of these employers, asking to see a doctor’s note was the most popular way to find out of the absence was based in truth (67%), followed by calling the employee (49%) and checking the employee’s social media posts (32%).

More than one in five employers (22%) have fired an employee for calling in sick with a fake excuse, an increase from last year (18%). Thirty-three percent of all employers have caught an employee lying about being sick by checking the employee’s social media accounts, and of those, 26% have fired the employee.

NEXT: Most memorable excuses

When asked to share the most memorable excuses for workplace absences they’ve heard, employers reported the following:

  • Employee claimed his grandmother poisoned him with ham;
  • Employee was stuck under the bed;
  • Employee broke his arm reaching to grab a falling sandwich;
  • Employee said the universe was telling him to take a day off;
  • Employee’s wife found out he was cheating. He had to spend the day retrieving his belongings from the dumpster;
  • Employee poked herself in the eye while combing her hair;
  • Employee said his wife put all his underwear in the washer;
  • Employee said the meal he cooked for a department potluck didn’t turn out well;
  • Employee was going to the beach because the doctor said she needed more vitamin D; and
  • Employee said her cat was stuck inside the dashboard of her car.
The national survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder from August 12 to September 2, 2015, and included a representative sample of 3,321 full-time workers and 2,326 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes.

Retirement-Challenged Millennials Need Education

Millennials admit to a retirement-planning strategy of blind guesswork.

Nearly one in five U.S. Millennials surveyed by BNY Mellon say they receive no financial information from their workplace or educational establishment, and nearly half admit to relying on a blind guess to estimate what they’ll need for a retirement fund.

The global survey, “Generation Lost: Engaging Millennials with Retirement Saving,” finds about one-fifth (19%) of Millennials in the U.S. do not receive any information about financial matters through their workplace or educational establishment, compared with 46% of Millennials from all respondents in other countries.

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Nearly half (46%) of Millennials estimate the size of the fund they will need for retirement by taking a “blind guess” rather than basing it on industry data, and 42% say they take an “educated guess.”

A combination of factors, including demographic, political and macro-economic trends, mean that many Millennials face a less comfortable retirement than their parents and their grandparents, BNY Mellon notes. While U.S. Millennials said they received more information from their workplaces about retirement savings than respondents in other countries, they also said they were not well informed about how much money they need to fund their retirements. The survey indicates Millennials’ lack of financial understanding seems to stem from a lack of education and information more than it does from a lack of interest.

Millennials are squeezed on a number of fronts, says Paul Kelly, a graduate from Cambridge Judge Business School and joint lead researcher for the study. “High student debt, low job security and low global growth mean Millennials face a different set of financial challenges than the Baby Boomers and Generation X.”

NEXT: Millennials want the truth

According to the BNY Mellon survey, 91% of U.S. Millennials want to be told the “stark reality” of their post-retirement finances.

“Millennials say they want more meaningful engagement with insurers and other financial services providers and to be told the truth about how poor they may be in retirement if they do not start saving early. They are ready to hear more confrontational, honest and realistic messages about the challenges they face in providing for their retirement,” says Vincent Pacilio, global head of the insurance client segment at BNY Mellon.

“Young people need regular engagement through multiple channels if they are to be equipped to deal with the challenges they face and provide for their own retirement,” suggests Sadia Cuthbert, head of business development at Cambridge Judge Business School, a co-author of the study. And financial providers have to start marketing to Millennials in ways they want to be marketed to, and with the products they are interested in, adds John Buckley, global head of Corporate Social Responsibility at BNY Mellon.

Other findings of the survey include that U.S. respondents would allocate 39% of their portfolio to investment vehicles that adhere to socially responsible investing (SRI) factors, and 57% of U.S. Millennials would save more if their pension allowed multiple lifetime withdrawals.

“Generation Lost: Engaging Millennials with Retirement Saving,” by BNY Mellon with Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, surveyed 1,253 Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) between July and September in Australia, Brazil, Japan, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the U.S.

The survey report can be accessed on BNY Mellon’s website.

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