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Calling in sick <br />...when <br />you're not <br />Surprise, surprise: Many <br />American workers who <br />call in sick may not actu- <br />ally be ill, a study suggests. A recent Harris <br />Interactive poll of 305 human resources <br />execs found only 38% of employee absences <br />on an unscheduled day off were due to ill- <br />ness.The remaining workers took "sick days" <br />to address family issues, stress or personal <br />needs, or because of an "entitlement men- <br />tality," says Paui Gibson, a vice president of <br />CCH,an Illinois human resources information <br />provider and the study's sponsor. <br />Faced with a tougher job climate and <br />increased work pressure, employees may be <br />skipping work to "establish equity," says <br />Arthur Brief, a business and psychology pro- <br />fessor at Tulane University in New Orleans. <br />When you feel overwhelmed, he says, call- <br />ing in sick is a way to "get payback." <br />Most employers allow for paid sick days <br />(which usually are lost if unused), but com- <br />panies that use a more flexible "paid time <br />off bank"have cutabsenteeism,Gibson says: <br />"The major benefit is giving people more <br />control over their time away from work." <br />