Calling in 'sick'? Think again

Some companies hire private detectives to bust sick-day abusers.

Oh, man, Christmas is coming soon, and you haven't done nearly enough shopping. One little sick day would accomplish so much!

Sounds tempting, but companies are starting to catch on. One work-force productivity firm says 57% of U.S. employees abuse sick days, taking them when they feel just fine, BusinessWeek reports. That's up nearly 20% from a few years ago.

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So now companies are hiring private detectives to spy on employees who call in sick. Investigators have found them at bowling alleys, football games and funerals, and one private eye says that "80 to 85% of the time there's definitely fraud happening," BusinessWeek reports.

Companies are apparently feeling a little better about this after a legal decision that backed up employee snooping. One woman was busted in 2008 for abusing her paid medical leave, and her subsequent lawsuit against her employer was dismissed in court. Spying isn't nice, the judges essentially said, but it's not illegal.

BusinessWeek has a funny story of one health care employee who was out for three days with the "flu." A private eye followed her to the Universal Studios theme park and bought automatic snapshots of her on the roller coaster. He even found a video of her at the animal show there. She continued to deny that she was there but was fired anyway.

The BusinessWeek story is amusing, but it doesn't answer some key questions. Sick-day abuse is going up, but are companies actually spying more on their employees? And why would a company go to all the effort? Hiring a private eye is expensive and hardly seems worth it if someone is out for a couple of days.