Around 80% of the country’s workforce admit to pulling a ‘sickie’ on a regular basis, according to research from fish4jobs.

The research found that ‘Sicknote Brits’ are particularly prone to faking it at this time of year as the 24 October – 1 November period marks the longest stretch that we work continuously without having a bank holiday to look forward to.

The survey highlights the top five reasons that we offer our employers when validating our sickies: lying about a death in the family, claiming a hangover is actually a migraine, claiming to have caught a foreign disease while on holiday, pretending a beloved family pet has died and producing spectacularly untrue DIY disaster stories.

The survey found that 38% of employees revealed they took a sickie to recover from a session down the pub the night before, one in five skip the working day to attend a job interview and 17% ditch work for a doctor’s appointment.

Joe Slavin (pictured), chief executive fish4, says: “We all know Brits work the longest hours in Europe and it’s clear from the survey that workers are resorting to pulling a sickie for all sorts of reasons. Employers need to take serious note and look for ways of tackling the Sicknote Culture that’s sweeping the UK.

“Tactics such as allowing a ‘duvet day’, encouraging a job share scheme or installing more ‘working from home’ time are all strategies that more UK employers need to adopt in order to help provide employees with a valid reason to take a last minute day off that is strictly by the book.”

However, the research revealed that 38% of people have caught a colleague enjoying a day trip out when they have called in sick.

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