Company Provides Phony Excuses For Workers Who Want A Day Off
Posted October 25, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Do you know someone at your office who continually calls in sick? Get ready to meet two guys who have figured out a way to make a living out of it. Welcome to the Excused Absence Network, an online service that provides sneaky employees a legitimate-looking excuse to take the day off.
John Liddell and Darl Waterhouse were working for a security company about four years ago when they noticed several of their colleagues writing fake doctors notes to excuse their absences. Both figured there was money to be made from a business providing that service and they launched it online for about $300. Since then, it’s become something of a phenomenon with the lazy, and has taken on a life of its own.
What do they do? For about $25, students or workers can purchase an authentic looking form that appears to provide the perfect excuse about why someone missed class or their regular shift. You can choose from a wide array of options, including a doctors’ appointment, a hospital stay, jury duty or even a funeral. And some creative types have even used it to get out of gym memberships.
The company sends out a template that can be filled out and tailored to an individual’s area or needs. Simply fill in the name and address of the physician, funeral parlour or courthouse of your choice, and you’re done. One testimonial shows how effective they can be. “I’ve managed to take … nine weeks off using these templates!” it boasts. “It couldn’t be any easier!”
But it could be a lot more honest. Experts have raised concerns about the ethics of the business, noting you’re not only lying to your employer, but also dragging unsuspecting doctors into the fraud.
And it doesn’t always work. A New Jersey woman was arrested earlier this year after she tried to use one of the notes to explain her absence for a court date over a speeding ticket. When officials called the physician listed on the form, he responded that he’d never heard of her.
“I can’t speak for doctors in general, but for me this practice sounds awful,” worries Dr. John Z. Sadler, a psychiatry and clinical sciences professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. “This business practice seems comparable to the ways ‘diploma mills’ and ‘term papers online’ are wrongful. If I was the co-worker, I’d turn the rascal in.”
But the founders believe their service is needed and have covered themselves by marking it ‘for entertainment purposes only.’ “Sometimes [people] just need a day off,” Liddell responds. “People are going to lie anyway. How many people go visit their doctors every day when they’re not sick because they just need a note?”
A recent Harris Interactive poll suggests two thirds of all workers who call in sick are really dealing with a family issue, a personal incident, stress or simply want a ‘mental health day’. Actual illness only occurs in 34 per cent of the cases.
And that’s just what the excuse makers are literally banking on. They’re not likely to use one of their own notes to get out of work. Liddell runs the company off a laptop in his Oklahoma residence and says his site gets 15,000 hits a month. But he won’t say how much he and his partner are pulling in from it.
Since it received national exposure, the site has been knocked offline on several occasions. You can click here to see for yourself if it’s currently up and running, but if it’s not, they’ll probably be able to provide you with some excuse. After all, that’s what their whole business is based on.
File photo credit: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
