This reading lesson focusses on skills related to: reading for main ideas and reading for supporting ideas.
Read this article related to the theme of motivation and time off work. Before reading, skim the reading and then complete the exercises in the lesson document.
A U.S. survey of employees around the world finds 52 per cent of Canadians play hooky. Why? They feel stressed
Have you ever played hooky from work, calling in sick even if you weren’t?
That’s the question a management firm asked in a survey of employees in eight nations, including Canada, France, the United States, China, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Australia.
The Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc., a Massachusetts-based firm, surveyed about 9,500 people around the world in July. Canada ranked fourth when it came to playing hooky with 52 per cent of employees calling in sick, putting them in a tie with U.S. workers.
Employees in China were at the top of the list, with 71 per cent admitting they’ve called in sick when they weren’t. France had the smallest percentage at 16 per cent.
Canadians, however, take the honours when it comes to being so stressed by work that they need to take time off. Seventy-one per cent of Canadian employees said they had to take time off because they were seriously stressed.
Sixty-two per cent of employees in the U.S. cited stress as their reason for playing hooky. In China it was 60 per cent; in the U.K. 57 per cent; in France 53 per cent; in Australia 51 per cent; in Mexico 46 per cent and in India 44 per cent.
The majority of Canadians also said that the employers use an automated system to keep track of absences.
And what do people do when they play hooky? According to the survey most Canadians and employees everywhere else, except for India and Mexico, stay home and watch TV or stay home in bed. Employees in India and Mexico also stay home and watch TV, but their second option was meeting up with friends and relatives.
There is a correlation between employees playing hooky and getting mandatory paid vacation, said Joyce Maroney, director of the Workforce Institute.
“There’s nothing cultural here about playing hooky. Those who have more paid time off available to them are less likely to play hooky,” she said.
“One of the major conclusions of the survey is when employees are given more generous paid days off they tend to work in a proactive way with employers to say ‘I need to take this day off’ for whatever reason,” Maroney added.
The survey included 1,006 adults in Canada, along with 2,293 in the U.S and 6,153 in the U.K. France, Australia, Mexico, China and India.
