{
  "id": 3219704,
  "title": "Bosses are convinced Gen Z fakes Wi-Fi outages and sick days to sneak off in summer—but 1 in 2 senior managers are guilty of the same thing",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/25/bosses-are-convinced-gen-z-fakes-wi-fi-outages-and-sick-days-to-sneak",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-25T07:03:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/08/25/gen-z-and-millennials-managers-ditching-desks-and-taking-a-secret-vacation-behind-bosses-back-fake-sick/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new study has revealed that not only are Gen Z and young millennials taking advantage of summer months to avoid work, but senior managers are also guilty of the same behavior. Research conducted by PDFFly surveyed 2000 managers and found that while 85% suspect their employees of faking excuses for time off, half of the management are doing the same. The excuses are almost identical for all levels of workers, including pretending their Wi-Fi is down, claiming a dental or doctor's appointment, or an alleged \"sick\" day. However, 6 in 10 managers admit that productivity drops in the summer, with some employees taking a full week off or even using medical leave to get up to 12 weeks paid time off. The trend isn't laziness, but anxiety, as two in five workers are scared that asking for time off will hurt their standing at work.",
  "summary": "New research has found that even senior have been calling in sick and sneaking out of work to enjoy the warm weather this summer.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}