Is that employee sick-sick or just sick of working?

Social media is helping employers spot fraud in all kinds of ways.

For example: Nearly one in four (24%) of employers have caught an employee faking sickness by checking sources like  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

A new CareerBuilder survey shows that workers calling in sick when they feel perfectly fine isn’t going away – it’s just that employees aren’t being smart about covering their trail.

You’d think most bosses wouldn’t be too forgiving if they saw an employee kite-boarding the same day he was expected in the office.

But 54% of those employers who caught a “faker” only reprimanded the employee. And only 22% of that group did fire the offending employee.

Excuses, excuses, excuses …

The survey shows that 28% of workers faked sick last year, a 4% drop from the previous year.

The reasons?

• 30% “didn’t feel like going in”
• 29% wanted a day to relax
• 21% skipped work for a doctor’s appointment
• 19% had some sleep to catch up on, and
• 11% cited bad weather.

Believe it or not, 49% of employees say their companies have a Paid Time Off program that lets them get paid for attending to personal matters.

Yet 23% of those workers still felt the need to make an excuse, ie. “Boss, I’m not feeling well today …”

At least some of the fakers came up with memorable and humorous excuses. Here are 10 of the best (or should we say “worst”) excuses managers provided:

1. The employee “just put a casserole in the oven.”
2. “Plastic surgery for enhancement purposes needed some ‘tweaking’ to get it just right.”
3. She said she “was sitting in the bathroom and her feet and legs fell asleep. When she stood up, she fell and broke her ankle.”
4. The worker “had been at the casino all weekend and still had money left to play with on Monday morning.”
5. An employee “woke up in a good mood and didn’t want to ruin it.”
6. He had a “lucky night” and “didn’t know where he was.”
7. “Got stuck in a blood pressure machine at the grocery store and couldn’t get out.”
8. An employee got “a gall stone and wanted to heal holistically.”
9. The employee caught “their uniform on fire by putting it in the microwave to dry.”
10. “Accidentally got on a plane” and couldn’t make it in.

Ever hear an excuse that tops any of those? Let’s hear it.