A new survey has found 43 per cent of employees in the UK admit to having pulled a sickie and taken time off work when they weren’t actually ill.
This number increased to 65 per cent when the field was narrowed down to 16-24 year olds in the study carried out by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated.
In comparison only 25 per cent of the 55-64 year old age group admitted to having feigned illness to take time off.
Reasons for taking a sickie included stress, looking after a sick child and too big a workload, as well as running out of paid leave to do the things they wanted to do.
Flexible hours were suggested as the solution to preventing so many people pulling sickies and the ability to have paid leave at short notice another suggestion.
Common excuses used to explain to bosses include food poisoning, headaches, toothaches and women’s problems.
