For a lot of people, a long weekend isn't quite long enough.
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So they’ll look to take a sickie to turn that long weekend into an even longer weekend.
According to a survey from NRMA Travel, 30 per cent of respondents admitted to chucking a sickie – or planned to take one – to extend their break from work.
The worst offenders were from Gen Y, who made up 48 per cent of all the sickie-chuckers who responded.
The most popular day to tack onto a sickie is Australia Day, with 22 per cent.
But Easter is in second spot, with 19 per cent opting for a sneaky sickie.
So if a work colleague calls into your office this Thursday or even Tuesday next week and says they're sick, be skeptical. Be very skeptical.
Surprisingly, just 14 per cent admitted to taking a sickie around New Year’s Day.
The NRMA survey also found that more than half of the respondents were getting out of town at Easter.
It should come as no surprise that the beach was the most popular location for an Easter getaway, with 34 per cent saying they were heading for the sand this weekend.
NRMA’s Executive General Manager, Travel and Touring, Paul Davies, said the sickie stats showed people really liked getting away from it all.
“This research indicates that domestic trips are so appealing people are willing to go to all sorts of lengths to get out and about,” Mr Davies said.
“Long weekend trips are great fun but we know that people don’t need to take sickies to enjoy them – Aussies have 134 million annual leave days stockpiled so we encourage people to do the right thing and use that annual leave to enjoy time away with family and friends.”
