Sick notes
More than one in four people have already made a mistake
The alarm clock rings too early or your head is pounding after being drunk: three out of ten people have used an excuse to stay away from work – sometimes with drastic consequences.
More than one in four people admit to having called in sick without justification. 29 percent of participants in a survey by the polling institute YouGov said they had used an excuse to stay away from work at least once in their life. 68 percent said no, the rest did not provide any information or did not know.
For most people, it’s been a while since they’ve been blue
A majority of 62 percent of those who have ever cheated said they last did so more than a year ago. One in five of the truants surveyed said they had called in sick exactly once in the past twelve months without actually becoming ill. 11 percent said they did it two to five times in the same period, and 2 percent even did it more than five times.
The blue makers don’t have a particular preference for a specific day of the week: around one in two people called in sick on different days. Most Mondays and Fridays, 12 and 11 percent respectively did this. However, mainly before or after a public holiday, only one in twenty people blued.
Some even lost their jobs because of it
Almost nine out of ten people surveyed went undetected when they turned blue. Only just under one in ten of those who skipped work were caught. When asked about the consequences, the participants were allowed to tick several answers: 55 percent received a warning, 30 percent received a reprimand without formal consequences. A quarter of the blue-collar workers caught were hit harder: they were even fired.
The survey was carried out between January 13th and 15th among 2,045 people on behalf of the German Press Agency. According to YouGov, it is representative of the German population aged 18 and over.
dpa
Source: Stern
