Text Messages Becoming Convenient for Calling in Sick

Text messaging seems to be the way of the future.  If you don't know how to text message, then you are way behind the times.  Now, it's even being used for employees to call in sick to their employer and is proving to be even more convenient.  A survey by the makers of the British cough and cold medication, Covonia, the survey found a quarter of those surveyed admit they've sent their supervisor a text on a sick day.  10,000 adults were part of the satistics and I have to admit, if I were asked, I'd be guilty, too!  One in six surveyed admitted they send emails when they are calling in sick.  One in 25 persons admitted they have resorted to writing a Facebook message.  That's a little unprofessional if you ask me. 

Though I think certain circumstances call for certain measures, I don't feel it is entirely out of the question to participate in such practices.  For instance, with my job, I get up at 4/4:30am.  I'm certainly not going to call Jake Thomas and tell him so early in the morning I can't make it.  Instead, I would send him an email or text message to let him know about the time-off usage and then text my co-workers so they know I didn't get in a horrific accident and instead, need coverage for that morning.  I'm also not going to call in the middle of the night if I wake up on my death bed. 

Managers view one of the reasons for emailing, texting or writing any sort of message instead of picking up the phone is because you don't feel like going face-to-face with your them.  Plus, if they question you, you don't feel like you have to come up with further explanation of your symptoms.   Some managers have questioned their employees' sick days by admitting they've called the employee from a different number; driven by their house; and one in five admitted to checking their sick employee's Facebook page!  Any healthy activity on the person's page just collaborates with their suspicion.

So I guess if you're a guilty party in this matter, be wary of social media sites and strange, unknown phone numbers calling your cell or house phone.  It would probably be safest, though seems a little paranoid, to be as prepared as Ferris Bueller was.  Seems a little extreme, but Principal Andy Rooney never actually caught him, now did he!