The Issue: Using Sick Time for Interviews

A difficult choice about using time off strains an employee's conscience and leads him to fake being sick

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If there's a system-wide failure or a VIP has a crashed computer, companies need to know their info-tech professionals can always be reached. The demand has only grown more intense as workers increasingly rely on technology, inside the office and out, to do their jobs, and as the tech go-to worker rises in rank. So where does time for job-hunting fit in?

In this case scenario, we visit a senior IT director at an insurance corporation. Although he has a great relationship with superiors and subordinates alike, he wants a new job (BusinessWeek.com, 10/16/07). The top brass consistently skimps on the funds needed to upgrade the company's technology to the state of the art, and he fears he will get stale in his present position. Plus, he's moving out of the city and buying a house in the suburbs. The commute would be an hour-and-a-half each way. He owes it to himself to move on.

Sticking Points

But what does he owe his employer? Despite stinting on some portions of the budget, the company has been generous with his bonuses and raises. Likewise, his co-workers are grateful. "I bet you take your BlackBerry in the shower," one colleague told him. "We can always find you when we need you."

In addition to the pangs of guilt about leaving those who appreciate him, he feels bad about taking time off to go on interviews. Are his misgivings justified?

"As long as you're job-hunting on your own dime—on a vacation or personal day—there's no ethical question," says Ethics at Work President Bruce Weinstein (who is known as the Ethics Guy® and writes the Ask the Ethics Guy! column for BusinessWeek.com).

Time Crunch

But here's the crux of the dilemma: It's only June and our executive has already used most of his paid time off for the year. With his mother's 90th birthday celebration the following month in Phoenix, a five-hour flight away, he would like to use his six remaining vacation and personal days for an extended visit.

Interviews could easily eat up all his time off. "It tends to be the case that the higher the level, the more interviews you'll have," points out Sandra Crowe, president of Pivotal Point Training & Consulting in Rockville, Md. "If you're in the managerial level in the private sector, you could be looking for a year to get the right fit and expect to have multiple interviews at the same place."

With little time to waste—our IT director wants to start his job search before closing on his new house—he could schedule as many interviews as possible for early breakfasts and late dinners outside of work hours. But that would solve only part of the problem.

"To interview with senior executives, you can usually arrange for a mealtime," says Pearl Meyer, senior managing director at Steven Hall & Partners, an executive compensation consulting firm in New York. "But you generally can't do that with an executive recruiter or someone in a human resources office. They will usually want to see you during work hours." And lunch meetings are out. It would take two or more hours just to travel to and from most of the interviews.

Playing the Sick Card

When his first interview comes up—with the human resources department at a corporation 50 miles from his office—our executive can't stomach the thought of using his little remaining vacation or personal time. The morning of the interview, he calls his supervisor and says he's not feeling well, that he suspects it's bronchitis, and he'll need to use a sick day to see a doctor.

His boss is understanding, of course. The man rarely calls in sick, so there must be a good reason for it now. But did our executive do the right thing?

Reisner is an editor at BusinessWeek.com .