Lying employees find help online
June 16, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Employee computer use, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
Let’s face it: Employees have always lied to get out of work. But now the Internet is lending them a helping hand.
One site that’s helping is the Excused Absence Network. For 25 bucks, employees can get phony documents to back up their excuses. They download a template, add their own names in the appropriate places and print them out to hand to managers.
Of course, there are doctor’s notes and emergency room visit slips. But the site also has some more creative offerings. It sells a jury duty summons, as well as a funeral service program where employees can add their names to the list of pallbearers.
Companies are buying it, too, at least if the site’s testimonials are to be believed. One woman claims the service helped her take nine weeks off without using a vacation day.
While services like this may look like bad news for HR, the fact is people are lying about being sick anyway — it’s estimated only about a third of sick days are actually taken for personal illness. That’s one reason some companies have switched to indiscriminate paid time off (PTO) plans that treat vacation and sick time the same way.
You can visit the site — and learn what to look out for — here.
Tags: doctor's note, Excused Absence Network, fake documents, funeral program, lying employees
June 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
What will the con artists think of next? I wonder if the website selling these fake excuses provide a warning the buyer can be terminated for providing false documents to their employers.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Site is down. There are a lot of stories on the ‘Net about this place today, so maybe it got overloaded by people who need a mental health day…. Or HR staff.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
I hope HR and/or management starts checking the validity of any such documents - and promptly firing anyone caught using them. It’s a really sad commentary about how personal integrity is viewed today when people are okay using a “service” like this to be liars, cheaters and underhanded sneaks. Yet I bet they’re also the first ones to start screaming if they feel they aren’t getting everything they think they should from their employers. I also bet they don’t have a problem describing themselves as “honest” or having “good character.” What a joke!!! It also doesn’t say much for the people who run the site. Hopefully their own employees have come up with many creative ways to cheat them as well.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
It would be interesting to know the generational demographics of the people using these services. My guess would be that it’s not a bell-shaped curve, but that the vast majority fall into the pre-40’s age group. People will always use excuses to do something they enjoy more, even if that’s doing nothing at all. The difference is being able to see the consequences of that action and, sadly, many younger people don’t understand consequences.
June 18th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
We have the paid time off system where all time is combined. So if you want a vacation day, personal day or out sick, it comes from the same pot. If you are out more then 5 days, we have an extended leave bank where sick days are added every year however, you still must use 5 of the PTO days to get to that bank of time. It does cut down on some abuse but not all.