Employees fake sickness to avoid work

London: A new research has suggested that 30 percent of employees faked a sick day when they were not sick simply because they didn't feel like going to work that day.

According to the study from CareerBuilder, 29 percent of the workers said they called in sick because they wanted the day to relax, 19 percent wanted to catch up on some sleep and for 11 percent, bad weather was a good enough reason, Business News Daily reported.

The study also found that nearly half of the workers surveyed said they have paid time off that they can use any way they like, 23 percent still feel obligated to make up an excuse for taking a day off.

However, faking sick days can have significant consequences as nearly 20 percent of employers have fired an employee for calling in sick with a fake excuse.

More than 30 percent of managers check to see if their employees are telling the truth by asking for a doctor's note and calling the employee, while 15 percent of employers have driven past a "sick" employee's house to make sure he or she was really home.

The study showed that one quarter of the employers surveyed have caught an employee lying about being sick by checking their social media accounts and of those, 22 percent have actually fired the employee, but 54 percent were more forgiving and only reprimanded the employee for the lie.