During any major sporting action, employees do skip work and watch sports instead, says a global survey. The Indian Premier League is an example of this trend in India while it is soccer in most other countries.

A survey commissioned by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc and conducted by Harris Interactive reveals that employees around the world have, to varying degrees, called in sick to work over a sporting event.

Whether they stayed home to watch it on television, attended it live, played the sport themselves, or needed a day off after staying up late to watch, sports has a significant impact on attendance at work.

The Kronos “Sidelined by Sports” survey also looks at which sports are most likely to keep employees from their jobs in each region and how guilty – or not guilty – people feel about calling into work sick for sport.

When it came to what employers could do to prevent employees from calling in sick when they are not actually sick, the top answer in every region was to allow employees to work flexible hours – this tied for first place with allowing employees to work from home in India.

Allowing employees to take unpaid leave and establishing a benefit like summer Fridays were the other options chosen most frequently in every region, the survey said.

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