Taylor Swift fan’s ‘sickie’ boast sparks stern warning over damaging trend in young workers: ‘They don’t care’
A Taylor Swift fan has boasted she’s going to call in sick to go to the Eras concert, but an employment expert says bosses can see right through it.
Australians are forking out some serious cash to be one of the 320,000 people seeing Taylor Swift in Sydney over the next four days, so you’d think keeping a job would be a high priority. But one 22-year-old is risking it for the biscuit. After having her leave request declined, she decided she will call in sick instead.
“There’s literally no way I was missing out on the Eras Tour,” she said. “I’ve been preparing for this for months, but I couldn’t get the annual leave. I’ve got the tissues and panadol ready, and I’ve been practising my ‘sick’ voice all week.”
Director of Superior People Recruitment Graham Wynn told Yahoo Finance bosses were clued in enough to work out when staff were faking it, particularly if they’d already tried to have the day off. And there’s one tell-tale sign.
“We check their social media pages anyway so we know where they are,” he said.
“In this day and age, with technology, seriously, there’s no point lying because you’ll get caught. We all check social media and they will be posting ‘oh, I’ve got tickets to Swiftie’, so there’s no point lying. You will get found out.”
“They’re not going to sack you if you get busted, but it’s going to be really detrimental to any future opportunities in that organisation because you’ve lied and it’s just not worth it.”
Younger workers ‘prioritise lifestyle’ over job: ‘They don’t care’
New research from Afterpay Australia found more than a quarter of Aussies surveyed would chuck a sickie to attend a music event, with that number jumping to two in five for Gen-Z and Millennial workers.
Wynn said a cultural shift in how younger Australians viewed work impacted this.
“We certainly did it in my day, but I don’t think we did it quite as badly,” he said. “Now … those people wanting that life balance will take the time off because they want to go to a concert because they don’t really care about the responsibility to their workplace because that’s not their priority.
“Their priority is their lifestyle and that’s where we’ve seen this whole shift in the workplace with the younger generation and their work ethic. Work has to fit around their life.”