Traveller pulls sickie to fly, finds boss on plane

Calling in sick to work, the plane she was on was the last place Leila Soares expected to be caught. Photo / @leilabelosoares; TikTok

Remember to locate your nearest exit in the unlikely event you’re caught skiving.

An Australian TikToker was left wishing she packed a parachute after calling in sick to work, only to find her boss seated on the same plane. What are the odds?

Leila Soares had got carried away while booking flights before checking she had enough leave to travel. Rather than using a day of precious holiday to travel she did the decent thing and pulled a sickie.

So you can imagine her shock.

“Messaged my boss to call sick only to find he on the same flight,” she wrote on the now viral video

Rather than owning up she donned a thick disguise. Wearing full PPE, baseball cap and thick sunglasses, Soares did her best impression of someone who was trying not to be recognised.

@leilabelosoares

And a oop #fyp

♬ sonido original - Nando Hernández 🚀

Here’s hoping her boss doesn’t follow her on TikTok, where the clip racked up over 11 million views.

The mis-timed sickie was something many people commenting recognised. It was as if fate and employers had a sixth sense for sick days.

“Almost like the time I called out sick and ended up in the newspaper pictured at an event,” wrote one.

“I called in sick a time and went to the casino and saw my boss waving at me by the roulette machines,” was another moment shared by a truant traveller.

@leilabelosoares

Replying to @Eriss 💜 can’t make this up 😭

♬ original sound - Leila Soares

The etiquette of pulling a sickie

Annual leave is precious and hard to come by, so most holidaymakers are loath to spend their days off travelling.

The standard notice for granting holiday leave is 14 days in New Zealand, which means that it is also a lot harder to plan or refit around your flights.

The temptation could be to “pull a sickie” if your plans don’t quite align.

However, before you practise your best croaky phone voice, you ought to know that pulling a sickie could cost you your job. It’s definitely not something this article can condone.

Abuse of leave can be classed as “serious misconduct” and grounds for termination of employment.

According to Dundas Street employment lawyers, abusing any kind of leave - whether bereavement, sick or compassionate leave - is viewed equally under New Zealand employment law.

“Obviously if you take that dishonestly - nobody’s sick or injured and you’re just going skiing - that is a breach of trust, which is ‘serious misconduct’,” Chloe Luscombe, partner with Dundas Street told the Herald.

Requested sick leave shorter than three days does not necessarily require a doctor’s note.

You can also take sick leave for mental health and wellness days, or even a hangover if needs be.

“If you’re sick or injured it doesn’t matter if that’s mental or physical. If you’re sick, you’re sick.”

What you can’t do is take sick leave for any other reason, such as in order to travel to a holiday spot. HR workers are highly suspicious of sick days taken before or after blocks of planned leave.

And remember rule number one: never post about calling in sick on your socials.