Hangovers Emerge as Top Excuse for Skiving Workers

net1

A third of British workers think it is acceptable to take a bogus day off sick, and the top reason for doing so is a hangover, according to a survey.
Over 60 percent of respondents in the research released on Tuesday said they had "pulled a sickie" after hard drinking.

Workers in Yorkshire, the Midlands, the southwest of England and Wales were more likely than the national average to use a hangover as a reason to call in sick.

Scots and Londoners were least likely to let a hangover get in the way of a working day.

The survey also found that half of all respondents would be more likely to haul themselves into work if they were in danger of losing pay.

Four in 10 would think again if they knew their bosses were monitoring their sick leave closely. A third would be less likely to skive if their working hours were more flexible.

But an undeterred one in 10 in the survey conducted among almost 1,000 people said nothing would stop them from calling in sick.

Mike Hawkesford, managing director of Crown Computing, the software company behind the research, said the results showed the need for bosses to manage sick leave.

"Keeping an eye on absences can help identify trends and patterns...Businesses need to manage absence as and when it happens," he said.

The Confederation of British Industry, an umbrella organization for employers, says bogus absence costs businesses as much as 11.6 billion pounds a year.