CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- When you get to work on Friday, you may see more empty chairs than normal. Fridays are big for calling in sick, and with the holiday season almost here, human resources managers expect it to get even worse.

Eyewitness News’ Don Griffin took a look at a sneaky, very risky way some workers are faking illness just to get a day off.

“Pretty much everybody has, hasn't they? I think about everybody has probably faked an illness to get out of work for a day or two,” said one person.

“Qualifying for NASCAR races, this and that, headache you just can't get over, mean can't go to work with a bad headache,” another said.

In fact, Careerbuilder.com did a survey on this. It found 32 percent of the employees it talked to admitted they'd faked an illness, just to get a day off.

Now some employees have found a new way to cheat the system – Web sites that now sells bogus doctor notes.

It also has fake notes for a funeral service, jury duty, or an ER visit. For $20, customers download templates. A few keystrokes and the template becomes an official looking doctor's note.

A few more and there's a funeral program for your Aunt Peggy -- you pick the date.

"It looks very legitimate,” said Kenny Colbert, president of The Employers Association in south Charlotte.

He said the detail on the doctor's notes is enough to fool most bosses.

“The reason they're out of work here, it says accident last Wednesday, it's got the dates and the limitations and the reasons they need to be out of work,” he explained. “It's good. It's a good fake.”

Throw in the fact that HPPA laws don't let employers call the doctor to check, and that's a free day off. But on the jury duty summons -- not so quick.

Colbert said with no seal or logo, it looks like what it is -- a phony.

“As an employer, I would certainly question this one and say I smell a rat here,” he said.

Colbert said the funeral program looks dicey too -- very plain with no logo for the funeral home. But, he said, funeral leave is a touchy area and hard to prove.

“What some employers will actually do is, I’ve seen them go to these steps is, ‘I want you to bring a copy of a death certificate,’ or ‘I want you to bring an obit from a newspaper,’ or something from a funeral home,” he said.

Colbert says 60 percent of companies in the Charlotte area have a use-it-or-lose-it sick day policy, which can contribute to abuse. He said a better option is to let those days roll over or buy them back at a reduced rate.

The Web site offering these notes clearly says, "for entertainment use only". But be warned, at most companies a fake note could be grounds for dismissal.

“If they're falsifying that, what else are they falsifying in the workplace?” Colbert said. Colbert also had this suggestion for employers -- make your own sick forms and tell your workers they have to have the doctor fill those out.

By the way, Mondays and Fridays are the top days for calling in sick. Bosses know that and tend to get more suspicious on those days.