Private investigator checking if your sick leave is real?

Private investigator checking if your sick leave is real?

When I read this news, I thought this must be some online humor. Then again, it’s not April Fool’s Day yet. So, I went to google and below are all the different media links to this piece of actual and real news. Briefly, there are companies who do not believe their employees are really sick, so they hired private investigators to check out these cases of employees taking medical leave. Are you worried now every time you apply for sick leave? Better stay home and not go anywhere yeah.

I am very sure when we apply for sick leaves here in Malaysia, our employers would trust us and not resort to hiring private investigators to check on us? Well, the charges to check on one employee is not exactly affordable too. Quickly browsing online showed that the cost of background checking starts from RM500. Probably, sending the private investigator to the home and checking if the staff is sick at home will be charged a similar amount?

Article in thestar.com.my “German companies are hiring private detectives to investigate whether employees on long-term sick leave are genuinely ill, viewing it as an effective way to dismiss unproductive workers during economic hardship.”

Article in scmp.com “German companies are hiring private detectives to investigate whether employees on long-term sick leave are genuinely ill, viewing it as an effective way to dismiss unproductive workers during economic hardship.”

Article in japantimes.co.jp. “Workers in Germany, on average, took 15.1 days of sick leave last year, up from 11.1 days in 2021, according to federal statistics agency Destatis. The TK, one of Germany’s major statutory health insurers, reported the average number of sick days among workers it covers was 14.13 in the first nine months of the year — a record high.”

If your staff is applying for sick leave, would you check on them?

Frankly, I think if it is worth spending the money and hiring private investigators to do the checking, perhaps this staff is no longer trusted much. Sometimes, if someone is taking too many sick leaves, then it is definitely a potential issue too. Perhaps it would be better to manage their performance and give notice to them.

These days, working from home is also a common scenario for many companies. I do wonder if these things which are happening overseas would soon also happen here in Malaysia too. I mean, if an advanced economy such as Germany has started to do it, perhaps a developing economy like Malaysia may soon follow suit. Or perhaps we could take a more easier way? Video call the staff instead? Haha. Then again, the staff may say they were asleep due to the medicine and thus missed the call…

Happy working and hopefully we gain the trust of our employers.

Happy investing and please do share your thoughts. Thank you!

Do not miss all the important happenings whether in property or other investments! It takes 5 seconds to sign up.
Sign up for daily investment news updates (FREE since Nov 2013 and FOREVER). 

Alternatively, Follow me on Telegram here.

Please LIKE kopiandproperty.com FB page to get daily updates about the property market beyond kopiandproperty.com articles.