Excused Absence or Fraud?

Do your employees really have jury duty? Did they really come down with Swamp Fever and need to miss a week of work? The normal procedure is to make them provide a doctor’s note or provide a jury duty notice. This may not be so easy now that an Oklahoma company has begun issuing excused absence notes that appear real.

For a mere $19.95, the Excused Absence Network will issue you up to 5 sick notes from Doctors, Dentists, Emergency Rooms, Jury Duty, Funerals, or Medical Evaluations. While their website states that the notes are for “entertainment purposes only,” how many people are actually using these notes to entertain their supervisors or friends?

MSNBC reported that a New Jersey woman was arrested after supplying one of these notes in order to provide explanation for why she missed traffic court. Unfortunately, court officials called the chiropractor who was listed on the note, and surprisingly, he had never heard of the woman.

A CCH nationwide survey found an absenteeism rate of about 2.3 percent in 2007. That’s down from 2.5 percent in 2006, the highest rate since 2.7 percent in 1999.

In my opinion, this practice is pretty unethical and could be considered fraud if your company is paying you for your day off. Company founder, John Liddell was quoted as saying, “Millions of Americans work dead-end jobs, and sometimes they just need a day off. People are going to lie anyway. ”

My response to John Liddell and those “millions” of people in dead end jobs is to do something to improve your situation and get a better job. The answer is not to lie, cheat and steal. You will never get out of your current situation doing that. The answer is to work on improving yourself and your abilities and move on to a better job with greater opportunities.

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