Category: General Information

 

It’s Monday, the start of another work week. Mondays can be tough, and calling in sick may be tempting. But, you may want to watch out – between crazy excuses and employers checking up on you, you may want to think twice.

 

Career Builder released results of their annual study looking at calling off work, including how many do it for what reasons, and how employers deal with it.

 

What’s the most popular month to call off work? You probably guessed it, but December was noted as showing the highest percentage of employees calling off work, followed by January and then February.

 

The study also revealed that 32% of respondents called in when they weren’t actually sick. The reasons for missing work?

 

• Just don’t feel like going (33%)
• Needed to relax (28%)
• Doctor appointments (24%)
• Catching up on sleep (19%)
• Running errands (14%)

 

The study also revealed the craziest reasons employees have called off based on responses from managers included in the study. Review the list carefully so you don’t use any of these the next time you call in sick to work:

 

· Employee’s false teeth flew out the window while driving down the highway

· Employee’s favorite football team lost on Sunday so needed Monday to recover

· Employee was quitting smoking and was grouchy

· Employee said that someone glued her doors and windows shut so she couldn’t leave the house to come to work

· Employee bit her tongue and couldn’t talk

· Employee claimed a swarm of bees surrounded his vehicle and he couldn’t make it in

· Employee said the chemical in turkey made him fall asleep and he missed his shift

· Employee felt like he was so angry he was going to hurt someone if he came in

· Employee received a threatening phone call from the electric company and needed to report it to the FBI

· Employee needed to finish Christmas shopping

· Employee’s fake eye was falling out of its socket

· Employee got lost and ended up in another state

· Employee couldn’t decide what to wear

 

As a manager, what are the craziest excuses you’ve heard? It’s a fun Monday topic – join in the conversation and let’s share a few laughs!

 

Bet you’re thinking it’s social media and/or internet surfing, right?

 

According to a recent study, not so much.

 

The biggest time waster, as deemed so by respondents of a recent survey, indicated that chatting with coworkers took up their time, followed by computer issues and meetings, and lastly by internet surfing.

 

The infographic below looks at what waste employee’s time. It’s interesting to note the statistics on meetings – 37% believe that half of their time is wasted in meetings. This is further perpetuated by the statistics on how people spend their time in meetings, with significant percentages reporting that they are daydreaming, doing other work, or skipping the meetings all together.

 

Social media can’t take the blame according to this study. It appears that employees are less involved in online activities than we are led to believe during work hours. Take a look at the infographic to see where your thoughts fall into line with the study before the new work week starts.