A new survey finds more than half of U.S. employees have called out sick to work when they actually were not ill.
According to the poll from the Workforce Institute at Kronos, workers across the world are guilty of "playing hooky" at times. In the U.S., 52 percent of workers admitted to calling in sick to to work when they felt fine. The highest incidence as seen in China, where more than 70 percent of workers admitted to the practice.
Stress was the most common reason for taking the day off, with 62 percent of U.S. responses. Other reasons included a sick child, a heavy workload or limited paid vacation time.
When employees were asked what the company could do to keep them from calling out sick unnecessarily, the top responses were offering a more flexible schedule, telecommuting options or the ability to take an unpaid leave of absence.
Unscheduled absenteeism has a major impact on companies across the country. Another recent Kronos report found it accounted for 8.7 percent of companies' payroll expenses each year, making HR compliance surrounding absences a critical function.
