CareerBuilder.com has released its annual survey on absenteeism in the workplace. It shows that 33% of workers called in sick at least once this year when they were, in fact, well.

Of the 33%, nearly 9% admitted that they just didn’t feel like going in to work. But instead of being upfront with the boss, they gave the most unusual excuses. Here are some actual examples:

“I can’t come in to work today because:
- I hit a turkey while riding a bike
- I had a heart attack this morning, but I am feeling just fine now
- My dog is stressed out after my family reunion
- I was kicked by a deer
- My wife burned all my clothes, so I had nothing to wear to work
- I was up all night, because the police found a dead body behind my house.”

Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilders.com says it’s in your best interest to just come clean with your boss and chances are you’ll get the time off that you need. She says that more companies are moving towards a paid time-off system to give employees more flexibility in categorizing time away from the office.

In the meantime, Cali and Jody, authors of the recently released Why Work Sucks, And How to Fix It, advocates the ROWE system, Results-Only Work Environment, whereby employees come in to work whenever they want and leave whenever they want and do whatever they want whenever they want—as long as the work gets done and the business objectives are achieved. This allows you to look after your family needs on your own time, shopping for groceries on a Tuesday morning instead of cramming it into the weekend, for instance, among other things. With this system, you are treated as an adult, and not as a child having to explain that you will be late because you have to take your baby to the pediatrician, or having to beg for permission to watch your kid play soccer. The authors are leading a movement to make it a reality, and so far their program has been adopted by Best Buy, the first company to try it.

What are your thoughts? Would you be happier if you could come in to work whenever you felt like it?