Job seekers and employees have always been creative when it comes to taking time off to interview or missing work for other reasons. Some of the interview excuses that site visitors have contributed are interesting - plumbing problems, lots of dental work, burglary, car troubles, and more.
CareerBuilder's annual absentee survey reports a variety of reasons, in addition to interviews, why employees are missing work. 12% called in sick because of something work-related, such as to miss a meeting, give themselves some more time to work on a project or avoid the wrath of a boss, colleague or client. Others missed work because they needed to go to a doctor's appointment (31%), needed to relax (28%), catch up on sleep (16%), or run errands (13%). 32% just didn't feel like going to work that day.
Unfortunately for those who have used a lot of excuses, employers are catching on. CareerBuilder also reports that 28% of employers think more employees are absent with fake excuses due to increased stress and burnout caused by the recession. 29% of employers reported they have checked up on an employee who called in sick and 15% said they have fired a worker for missing work without a legitimate excuse. Of those who checked up on an employee, 70% said they required a doctor's note, 52% called the employee at home, 18% had another worker call the employee, and 17% drove by the employee's house or apartment.
The obvious lesson here for job seekers is to be careful what excuses you are using to take time off to interview and to be careful if you use fake excuses. You don't want to lose your job before you find a new one. I always suggest that job seekers try to schedule interviews early or late in the day, or at lunch time. Another alternative, if you can schedule a couple of interviews on one day, is taking a vacation day.
If you have an excuse that will work for taking time off for an interview, add it to our collection of interview excuses.
More: Time Off to Interview | Absence Excuse Letters
Photo Copyright Ana Abejon
Isn’t that illegal? If you call in sick, regardless of the reason, your employer cannot call/check in on you…to my knowledge. Food for thought–maybe employees wouldn’t resort to this if they could take the vacation time that is given/earned w/o such a hassle. I know in my office it’s not easy to take a vacation day or days.
Companies don’t have to provide workers with sick days, so it is my understanding that they can set company policy to cover how those sick days are administered i.e. requiring a doctor’s note.
There isn’t federal law regulating sick time and what companies can do, because other than the Family Medical Leave Act, Worker’s Compensation, Disability, etc. there aren’t any federal or state laws that provide for sick time. Rather, it’s an employee benefit provided by the company or negotiated in a contract.
Here’s more on sick pay and how it works:
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/jobsearchglossary/g/sickpay.htm