What Are The Most Creative Call-off Excuses You Have Heard?

[bluegeegoo2]

Ok. Maybe that isn't a fair title. Perhaps some of the excuses are true. But I would like to see what others have been told as far as why someone called off. Here's a few of my favorites:

1. My babysitter is in jail so I can't come in.

2. I burned my hand on some food so I can't work today.

3. I forgot I had to work today, so I stayed up too late and am too tired to come in.

4. My child got stung by a bee (several hours ago) so I don't want to come in.

5. I'm mad at (supervisor) so I'm not working today.

I have used "I'm stressed to death and am taking a "mental health" day today." Yes, I was wrote for an absence, lol. But I was being honest. Anyway, what have you heard?

[chrisrn24]

I floated to this unit once. In report the charge nurse mentioned that the nurse I was filling in for had both pink-eye and gastroenteritis. Poor nurse must have felt miserable!

She probably got it from puking on a toliet seat!

[thenursemandy]

I don't say why I'm calling in. Its none of their business in most cases. Once I was literally trapped in an alley by two foot deep snow. I called plowers and even the street department to plow my alley to no avail. I couldn't get out of tge allwy to get on the cleared roads to get to work. The person taking my call basically accused me of lying. I was shocked and hurt by that. From then on I don't give a reason.

[cassie77775]

I've used conjuctivitis(I had it as did 3 of my kids).

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

This actually happened - I swear (because you could NOT make this up!):

I was the house supervisor over the four day Thanksgiving holiday/ weekend. ICU nurse calls in because her cat was missing. On Thanksgiving. That's Thursday.

She's scheduled off Friday and Saturday.

Sunday, she calls off again because (wait for it.....) the cat had returned but seemed 'emotionally needy'.

Her manager was sitting next to me at the time the second call came. I just put it on speaker and asked her to repeat what she had just said.

[amoLucia]

I've heard many. I had a co-worker supervisor who started a 'book collection' of the most innovative ones she ever heard. She said she'd like to publish it someday. We all would roar when she's start to read some of them.

Personally, I can appreciate the eyeglasses problem. I wouldn't be able to read anything small like the MAR.

I have called out for water in my ear. Silly, huh? Well, it causes me a blinding headache with nausea & projectile vomiting, dizziness being so unbalanced I have to hold on to the walls and my bed spins. I'm unable to drive, so someone else has to take me to my Md.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

Back in my call center days, a lot of people called out for sporting events, especially the playoffs, the Super Bowl, and the World Cup. One of my co-workers constantly called out for church-related activities, things I assume she knew about ahead of time.

[DedHedRN]

I tried to call in once because the breaks went out completely on my car. I mean no breaks at all, thing wouldn't stop. My boss told me to come in anyways and to get it fixed while I was at work and she would pick me up and take me back to the break shop.

So I came to work, bumped my car into the bushes to park, and on my break dropped it off at the shop, and my boss didn't even have to drive me because the place had a shuttle service.

Ended up working out OK, but cost me so much more then I wanted to spend because I couldn't really shop around for someone to fix it.

[LandD_RN_chica]

I'm 32. I used to dread finding excuses. Until one day an older nurse said Don't tell them anything. They don't tell you when they take off why they are. You just say I'm not coming in and that's that. Made things much easier. I did however call out the night before a shift because at 10 at night I discovered my children had lice. Worse time of my life getting rid of that. I wanted to jump off a bridge. I don't wish it on my worse enemy and I pray to God my kids never get it again.

[DoeRN]

I lived in a very old house that was being renovated and we had an electrical fire that afternoon and I worked nights. I woke up to the smoke detector going off. So I ran downstairs grab the dog and run out the house and called the fire dept. I had to be at work in 4 hours so I called in and my manager said well can you come in after the fire is put out?!!! You could hear the sirens in the background and fire is shooting out of the basement back door and the back porch was in flames by that time. Needless to say I did not go in after the fire was put out.

When I was a manager I had an employee call in because her newborn spit up on her scrubs and she didn't have any clean ones...... I told her that we could issue her a pair of OR scrubs for the day. She then said that the baby vomit got on her shoes too.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

"A goat fainted in my driveway so I can't come in."

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

I once heard "my glasses broke" as a request for an emergency vacation day. As a 20 year glasses wearer, I found this excuse pretty thin! I have at least 4 old pairs that, while not perfect, could get me through a shift. Made me stop to think what other lame excuses might work for me if needed!

I used this once. 11:00 at night, the screw fell out of one side and the lens popped out. I could not see well enough to get the screw back in, I don't keep old eye glasses and as my prescription is very heavy, there is no way I can function without my glasses. Even if I had an old pair lying around, there is no way I would work with a pair of glasses that does not give me normal vision

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

And then there was the girl who called in sick 15 mins AFTER her night shift started. And did. to understand why people were upset with her!