Say what? For a workday off, some employees say anything

A botched hair-dye job. A bad breakup. And yes, actually being sick.

Those are some of the reasons employees call in sick, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com.

Some explanations are truthful. Some are exaggerations. Then there are the outright lies.

Nearly a third of workers reported false ailments in order to play hooky during the past year, according to the survey of 3,976 employees.

Nearly one in six ditched work "to catch up on sleep."

CareerBuilder also surveyed 2,494 hiring managers and human resource professionals. Among the most memorable excuses:

•"Employee was upset after watching The Hunger Games."

•"Employee's dead grandmother was being exhumed for a police investigation."

•"Employee's hair turned orange from dying her hair at home."

Some outrageous tales stem from a worker's desire to convince a tough boss that the need for time off is crucial, "so they come up with something very imaginative," says CareerBuilder's Rosemary Haefner.

Other times, workers stretch the truth, like claiming a funeral is during work hours to get extra time off.

They may think of sick days as a fleeting benefit, Haefner says: "They think, 'I've got to use it or lose it.'"

Bruce Elliott, manager of compensation and benefits at the Society for Human Resource Management, has heard a slew of excuses made more dubious because of their timing, such as during the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament.

Fakers who raise a red flag by returning from a sick day with a tan -- or who are tagged in a Facebook photo of a weekday golf outing -- should have concerns. Sick-day abuse not only alienates managers and co-workers who are left to handle the workload, it can also lead to unemployment.

Nearly 30% of employers have checked up on a worker, usually by requiring a doctor's note or phoning the worker at home. And 17% have fired an employee for a phony excuse.