The survey was issued to 500 salaried full time employees in office based occupations. The survey was conducted by Kronos to help understand the extent of unscheduled absence in the workplace over the summer months and to investigate how this figure might be reduced if employers offered more flexible working patterns.


The following is a summary of the survey findings.

Report summary
This survey explores some of the reasons why employees take time off sick when they are not really ill, and suggests ways in which employers can discourage false sick days being taken.
Some of the key findings of this survey include:

•	Approximately 25% of employees admitted to calling in sick to enjoy a day off
•	Employees would prefer the flexibility to be more spontaneous with their working hours rather than be awarded additional paid leave
•	Flexible contracts, holiday purchase schemes and unpaid leave appeared to be an incentive to reduce false sick leave
•	Low staff morale was high amongst employees who have to pick up the workload for absent staff
•	The majority of people who call in sick spend the day watching television.

More: False sickness absence