Survey: One-third of employees who call out aren't sick, employers share workers' crazy excuses

Being sick from reading too much and getting upset after watching “The Hunger Games” are just two of the most unusual reasons employees told their bosses when they called out sick from work, according to a recent Career Builder survey.

A study using nearly 2,500 managers and 4,000 workers confirmed that aside from actually being sick, 34 percent of employees call out from work because they don’t feel like going, and they don’t necessarily provide the best excuses.

The most memorable reasons for calling out that employers in the survey recalled include:

• Employee's sobriety tool wouldn't allow the car to start
• Employee forgot he had been hired for the job
• Employee said her dog was having a nervous breakdown
• Employee's dead grandmother was being exhumed for a police investigation
• Employee said a bird bit her
• Employee was upset after watching the film "The Hunger Games"
• Employee was suffering from a broken heart
• Employee's hair turned orange from dying her hair at home
• Employee's toe got stuck in sink

When it comes to the winter month holiday seasons, employers typically experience a boost in call-out sick days.

But employees who play hooky may want to know that 29 percent of employers have checked up on employees to make sure their workers were being honest.

Some methods to verify employees’ illnesses include having another coworker call the "sick" employee  or drive by the employee’s home to check up on them.

Seventeen percent of the employers have fired workers for giving fake excuses.

Read more about the survey on careerbuilder.com.

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