The 10 worst excuses for skipping work revealed

Over half of UK employees have admitted to feeling guilty for taking a sick day, with most of them saying it’s because they feel as if they are leaving their colleagues in the lurch.

According to a new survey from CV-Library, women were polled as the most remorseful, with 60.5% of them saying they felt bad about absenteeism. The survey received 1,300 responses from workers across the UK and found that 79.7% of workers have ‘pulled a sickie’ in the last year, with 17.5% of them making up an excuse for not going in to work.

Furthermore, 24.1% of those asked said they felt taking sick days reflected badly on them as an employee; while 13.2% believe it is frowned upon in the workplace. Lee Biggins, Founder and Managing Director of CV-Library comments: “In today’s working world it’s clear that professionals are still taking unnecessary sick days, giving a whole host of excuses for not turning up to work. But while it might seem like a good idea at the time, many workers are feeling the guilt, recognising that their decisions have a wider impact on their team and workload.”

The most common reason for calling in sick was tiredness (43%), followed by simply not being bothered (15%) and having other plans (13%). One in ten workers said they called in sick because of a hangover.