Apparently, there’s a new disease in town and it affects mostly the employed population of society. In fact, it has been estimated that the affected individuals have numbered in at around tens of thousands, possibly crippling the economy for a day. The weird part was, the epidemic took place on the same day as Game of Thrones Season 8’s release day.
Oh well, there’s no point in hiding it. If you’re an employer (particularly in Australia) and legions of your employees call in sick today, chances are, they’re not really sick. They might have just developed a couch-related affliction called “Westerositis” and have now become a permanent part of their couch after watching Game of Thrones Season 8’s first episode.
In their defense, people in Western Australia actually have it a little bit worse when it comes to the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere. The long-awaited final season of the show got scheduled to air there on Monday at 9 a.m. (AWST). Smack dab right in the first day of work. Hence, tens of thousands of employees in Australia were sort of expected to do the logical thing: call in sick to work.
“They would do this legally through taking leave and illegally by falsely claiming illness… I can definitely say there will be a bigger rate of people taking the day off to watch Game of Thrones because it’s a Monday, it’s convenient,” says Daniel Stojanoski, an employment lawyer for Slater and Gordon. Bosses have been notified to expect such an “epidemic,” of course.
While employees could just wait and catch a re-run on HBO, that would mean having to live through spoilers in social media or worse, random public banter.
Still, Stojanoski has issued a warning to employees who did or are planning to do this again. The lawyer stated that it is better to ask your boss for flexibility instead of lying about illnesses since falsely claiming to be ill is actually illegal. Tough luck convincing your boss though if you’re actually, really sick today.
You might also like:
0 Comments