Employees are searching for "believable" reasons to call off work

U.S. workers want to take more time off from their jobs and are increasingly turning to the internet to find credible reasons to do so. 

That's the main takeaway from a new report released Tuesday from Frank Recruitment Group, a U.K.-based technology recruiting company. The firm analyzed Google search engine traffic from 2018 and 2022 and found that searches for excuses to miss work rose 630% during that time period. Searches for "believable excuses for missing work" and "realistic excuses for missing work" rose substantially, the report found. Other phrases people searched for more often included "best excuses for missing work," "calling in sick" and "good excuses to miss work."

The report stopped short of saying more employees are actually calling off from work than in years past.

Frank Recruitment's analysis comes as employers are struggling to corral workers back into office buildings. Companies forced to place employees on remote work schedules for more than two years during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, are shifting to hybrid schedules now that many COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted. 

The Google search data suggests that some employees are unhappy with returning to the office, Frank Recruitment President of Americas Rowan O'Grady said in a statement. 

"It seems to coincide with the beginning of the return to office, which tells us that this hasn't been the easiest transition for everybody," O'Grady said in the report. "The important thing, of course, is not to try and go back to normal but to go forward to a healthier tomorrow."

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Workers are probably searching for reasons to call off because they're "feeling that they do not have a supervisor or organization culture in which they can freely take time off without being met with ridicule or challenge," organizational development expert Shané Teran said in the report. 

Employers lack "grace and understanding"

"A number of people are not experiencing the grace and understanding from employers that they need, which leads to a resolve of faking it but escaping by any means necessary," Teran said. "People are needing to take more time off in order to manage the long-lasting stressors that come with readjustment."

Regardless of workers' stress, employers are expected to ramp up efforts to bring people back on site. In a ResumeBuilder survey from last month, 90% of companies said they planned to require employees to return at some capacity in 2023 and nearly 20% of those said they would fire workers who didn't return. 

Many employers believe in-person work will increase motivation and spur collaboration among workers. About a third of managers believe employees will be more productive if they're being watched, a recent Fiverr Business survey found. About 1 in 4 managers said they want employees back five days a week because they believe workers will take shorter breaks, the October survey found.