london those in the habit of calling in sick will need to improve their proficiency in the art of lying for bosses determined to check absenteeism in office are resorting to technology to crack down on employees pulling a sickiethe desperate measure using overthephone lie detectors comes at a time when absenteeism due to sickness are costing companies billions of pounds and reports showing nearly one in eight days off sick thought to be bogusthe technology ensures that someone phoning in for a sickie will speak to a computer set up to check whether their voice is steady and reliable the voice risk analysis vra picks up changes in a callers voice that suggest they are under pressure as is likely if they are lying the daily mail of britain said todayemployers believe 12 per cent of absence is not genuine and that these sickies amount to 21 million lost days every year said susan anderson personnel policy chief at the confederation of british industryemployers also believe there is often a link between false absence and weekends holidays and special events like international football games this technology could be very useful where employers suspect staff are abusing sickness rules she was quoted as saying by the dailyif you know there is a lie detector on the other end of the phone im pretty sure most people would think twice about it said an official of an outsourcing firm