According to new research out today, a staggering one in five UK workers have faked the death of a loved one at some point in their career to get time off to attend a job interview.

But Britain's bosses aren't completely fooled by bogus excuses. Nearly one in ten suspect the death of a family member as an interview excuse, compared with only 2% disbelieving dentist appointments.

The Fish4Jobs national survey of adults in full and part time employment shows that asking for a few hours off for a medical appointment is not a common excuse for time off.

Deciding to go the whole hog and take a complete day off by calling in 'sick' is by far the most popular option.

Sixty-one per cent of respondents confessed to having taken a 'sickie' in the past to go to a job interview, rising to 73% amongst the under 35s. Employers are onto this too, with 49% of employers admitting to being suspicious of job interviews when employees call in sick.

In the 'interview excuse top ten', doctors appointments came in second at 53%, with trips to the dentists only used by 34% of respondents.

A quarter of respondents have used the excuse of their car breaking down, 11% have at some point said that they have to visit someone in hospital, while 9% have said they need to take their pet to the vets.

Fish4Jobs spokesman Jonathan Lines said: "With our recent research showing 15 times as many people expected to job hunt in January as in December these latest findings indicate that employers could be looking at a spate of employee absence in the next couple of months, with sick days at an all-year high.

"The Fish4jobs research results should make employers concerned about the health of their staff over the coldest winter months. Amongst genuine absences caused by the common cold, there will be many interview excuse 'sickies' taken by the uplift of people looking for a new job.

Jonathan cautions job hunters considering using a death in the family as an excuse to weigh up whether it is worth the guilt and the effort of lying and faking a family tragedy.

"This new research reveals job seekers should be careful - for every nine sympathetic bosses there's a suspicious one. And rather than calling in sick or inventing a death in the family, perhaps job hunters would be safer taking a day off as holiday."

Published Monday January 14, 2002