Sick as a dog: 1 in 5 Singapore workers guilty of faking illness

Just because they didn't feel like working.

According to the latest survey by JobsCentral, nearly one in five Singapore workers (18.3%) admitted to feigning sickness to get medical leave.

Here's more from JobsCentral:

Of these, about half (49.1%) revealed they would play ‘hooky’ from work three or more times a year. On the other hand, out of the 77.7% of employers who would perform checks when their staff is absent due to illnesses, most of them (82.7%) rely on medical certificates to verify sickness claims.

Only 12.3 per cent said they would call the employee to check, while 5 per cent would go to the extent of asking a co-worker to check on the employee.

In addition, most workers (42%) who faked illnesses to avoid work did so because they just didn’t feel like working. A further 30.7 per cent cited plans outside work, while 7.6 and 7.3 per cent did so because they overslept and felt burnt out in their jobs respectively.

A total of 3,299 employees and 256 hiring managers took part in this survey. “The survey results show that there is mutual responsibility and trust between employers and employees. A large majority of employees are honest when it comes to taking sick leave and few employers are so mistrusting of their employees to resort to invasion checks,” says Michelle Lim, Chief Operating Officer of JobsCentral Group.

“As for the healthy 20 per cent who used illnesses to dodge work, they risk jeopardising their jobs and careers. On the other hand, an overly suspicious employer or manager that constantly checks on employees is also detrimental to work relationships; few employees would tolerate working for managers that do not trust them,” she adds.