Margaret Marquisi

Excused Absence - Get Excused With a Fake Absence Note

Are you a manager with an office floor that looks more like a ghost town?  Finding more and more often that your employees are absent from their desks?  You aren't alone.  Absenteeism is on the rise in the workplace, and a new trend may just mean that your employees have ironclad excuses.

Calling in sick is nothing new in the office, especially with the weekend drawing near.  But now, you'll have a much harder time disciplining your absent workers, thanks to a new product.  Companies online have begun to sell "excused absence" notes – fake doctor's stationary, to be filled in by your employees to cover their tracks.  While they were out earning a hangover, their excused absence assures you that they were serving jury duty.  While they were really trying to catch pop flies at the home game, they will dutifully bring you an excused absence note explaining that they had an appointment for a physical.  And instead of getting up early for the staff meeting, they'll saunter in Monday morning, bright eyed and busy-tailed, with an excused absence that they had to attend a last-minute wake.

Managers beware!  These excused absence notes are of such high-quality, it's virtually impossible to tell the difference from the genuine article.  With the better providers online, it's actually possible to fill in the doctor's information from scratch to make sure the address is local.

The problem is, it's often difficult to determine a real excused absence and a fake one.  Oftentimes, diligent employees will come to work sick because they feel it's their duty to do so, infecting their co-workers in the process and bringing down overall productivity.   Given a choice between one crafty employees excused absence and a decimated workforce, a manager is left with a catch-22.

Good news for employers, however:  overall, excused absences are going down, even with the new tools available for tricky workers.  From a national high of 2.7% absenteeism in 1999, overall absenteeism dropped to only 2.3% in 2007.  Perhaps more employees calling in sick when they aren't is removing the stigma from workers that truly are ill, and keeping overall attendance up?  Only time will tell.

Article Tags: Excused Absence, Absence Note

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