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beejmi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 01:05 pm |
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THACKERVILLE, Okla. (AP) — Feeling like playing hooky, but nervous about getting caught? The Excused Absence Network has got your back.
For about $25, students and employees can buy excuse notes that appear to come from doctors or hospitals. Other options include a fake jury summons or an authentic-looking funeral service program complete with comforting poems and a list of pallbearers.
Some question whether the products are legal or ethical — or even work — but the company's owners say they're just helping people do something they would have done anyway.
"Millions of Americans work dead-end jobs, and sometimes they just need a day off," said John Liddell, co-founder of the Internet-based company Vision Matters, which sells the notes as part of its Excused Absence Network. "People are going to lie anyway. How many people go visit their doctors every day when they're not sick because they just need a note?"
The company's customers receive templates so they can print the notes after typing the name and address of a local doctor or emergency room. Those who choose jury duty as an excuse to miss work enter their county courthouse information on the form.
Though the company's disclaimer advises the notes are "for entertainment purposes only," its Web site shows pictures of people sunbathing and playing golf using the fabricated excuses. One testimonial says: "I've managed to take the nine weeks off using these templates! It couldn't be any easier!"
Actually, for one New Jersey woman it wasn't so easy. She was arrested this year after using one of the company's notes to support her claim she was too injured to appear in traffic court for a speeding ticket. She was caught after court officials called the chiropractor listed and he told them he never heard of the woman.
Vision Matters co-founder Darl Waterhouse said people looking to trick their bosses probably won't get caught because of federal restrictions on the release of patient medical information.
But some are concerned about potential problems.
If bosses find out the notes are not authentic, they might think the medical provider helped in the scam, said Dr. John Z. Sadler, a psychiatry and clinical sciences professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Reputations could be unfairly damaged, and accreditation or license problems could arise, he said.
"I can't speak for doctors in general, but for me this practice sounds awful," said Sadler, also the director of UT-Southwestern's Program in Ethics in Science and Medicine. "This business practice seems comparable to the ways `diploma mills' and `term papers online' are wrongful."
Sadler said people who skip work without a legitimate reason are burdening conscientious employees.
"If I was the co-worker, I'd turn the rascal in," Sadler said.
Many businesses require documentation if an employee misses work. But several companies declined to reveal their specific policies or say whether the possibility their workers might use fake excuse notes is a concern.
"At Lockheed Martin, we have a highly ethical culture and it is extremely unlikely any of our employees would use these kinds of services," according to a statement from Lockheed Martin Aeronatics Co. in Fort Worth, Texas.
An annual nationwide survey of more than 300 human resource executives found an absenteeism rate of about 2.3 percent this year. That's down from 2.5 percent in 2006, the highest rate since 2.7 percent in 1999.
The survey was conducted by the Harris Interactive consulting firm for CCH Inc., which provides employment law information.
The executives surveyed said that two-thirds of employees who call in sick at the last minute are really missing work due to family issues, personal needs, stress and an entitlement mentality. Personal illness accounts for only 34 percent of the absences.
The Vision Matters founders said many employees are fed up with working long hours for little pay, then having no flexibility if they needed to tend to a sick relative or attend their children's school activities.
"If employers would treat people the way they need to be treated, people wouldn't be using these notes," Liddell said.
Liddell and Waterhouse met about four years ago while working in security for a manufacturing company. After seeing several employees write fake doctor notes, the men launched the Internet business on about $300 each.
Liddell runs the company from a laptop in his home in Thackerville, a town of about 400 located a few miles north of the Oklahoma-Texas line. He won't reveal sales numbers, but says the Web site gets about 15,000 hits a month.
Waterhouse said customers have used the notes not only to miss work but to get out of gym membership contracts.
"There's no way we could think of every way to use it," he said.
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srossi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 01:27 pm |
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| Is this a legitimate story? It doesn't make any sense at all. I've never even heard of a company that requires doctor's notes. If you call out too often, whether you're really sick or not, you get fired. There's nothing magical about having a doctor's note. And clearly trying to get out of jury duty with a fake note is illegal and there's no way they won't see through that.
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bingo914
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 01:36 pm |
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| Just about every company I have worked for requests a Dr.'s note if you call out sick 3 or more days. One of which was Bank of America and they are a pretty big company.
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beejmi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 01:46 pm |
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| It's legit. Proefessional looking funeral programs, jury duty summons, etc to get out of work or whatever.
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lobo316
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 01:53 pm |
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bingo914 wrote:
Just about every company I have worked for requests a Dr.'s note if you call out sick 3 or more days. One of which was Bank of America and they are a pretty big company.
Bingo is bang on. I work for a frigging bank that requires a doctor's note for
3 or more consecutive days missed due to illness.
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srossi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 02:06 pm |
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| That's odd. I worked directly for Goldman and J.P. Morgan and never required a doctor's note, but more importantly I recruit for most of the NY banks and I've never even heard any of the ask for notes from our temps.
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bingo914
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 02:07 pm |
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| My guess is because they are temps and they don't have to pay them sick time when they call off.
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beejmi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 02:25 pm |
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| I think it is more of a staple in what we might call "service industries"
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srossi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 03:25 pm |
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| Well that's definitely true, they get paid only for the hours they work but depending on the client they're either very lenient and just let temps call out sick for ages or they just fire them after 1 or 2 days of being out.
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srossi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 03:25 pm |
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| Well that's definitely true, they get paid only for the hours they work but depending on the client they're either very lenient and just let temps call out sick for ages or they just fire them after 1 or 2 days of being out.
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srossi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 03:35 pm |
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I think it is more of a staple in what we might call "service industries"
I'm sure but one of my best friends is a waiter and from what he's told me, if anyone is out for 2 or 3 days in a row everyone just assumes they're never coming back. The turnover's insane and the lack of professionalism in just disappearing without a word, sometimes even without picking up the last pay check, is rampant. And I dated a waitress way back who was at the same restaurant for 2 years (an eternity) and refused to train anyone because the newbies kept leaving immediately.
Last edited on Thu Oct 25th, 2007 03:49 pm by srossi
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brodiescomics
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 03:38 pm |
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Kinda off topic but it is interesting that you guys refer to informing your employer that you will not be at work due to illness as "calling out sick" and here we refer to it as "calling in sick".
I have also noticed that some of you have used "waiting on line" instead of "waiting in line" at the bank for instance. Interesting.
I will also add that after 3 days of calling "in" sick, every employer I have ever worked for requires a doctor's excuse.
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beejmi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 03:38 pm |
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| It may be closer to a legal requirement because they work with food and other people as opposed to being in an office and on the phone or internet for the day.
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srossi
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Posted: Thu Oct 25th, 2007 03:51 pm |
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Kinda off topic but it is interesting that you guys refer to informing your employer that you will not be at work due to illness as "calling out sick" and here we refer to it as "calling in sick".
I have also noticed that some of you have used "waiting on line" instead of "waiting in line" at the bank for instance. Interesting.
I will also add that after 3 days of calling "in" sick, every employer I have ever worked for requires a doctor's excuse.
I've never heard anyone say "calling in sick" in NY. "Waiting on line" or "waiting in line" is pretty interchangeable but "in" is more common here.
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