Faking a cough sounds so boring compared to these sick day excuses. Here are the 2014 roundup of the year's most unbelievable excuses bosses have heard from employees. If they're to be believed, American workers got into some serious hijinks this year.
Here are the top excuses from their representative sample of 2,203 hiring managers and HR professionals across companies:
10. Employee just put a casserole in the oven.
9. Employee's plastic surgery for enhancement purposes needed some "tweaking" to get it just right.
8. Employee was sitting in the bathroom and her feet and legs fell asleep. When she stood up, she fell and broke her ankle.
7. Employee had been at the casino all weekend and still had money left to play with on Monday morning.
6. Employee woke up in a good mood and didn't want to ruin it.
5. Employee had a "lucky night" and didn't know where he was.
4. Employee got stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store and couldn't get out.
3. Employee had a gall stone they wanted to heal holistically.
2. Employee caught their uniform on fire by putting it in the microwave to dry.
Not for work but Nursing school....a student called her Psychology professor and told him she wouldn't be in for class because her grandmother had died. Being the good professor he called the family to offer his condolences and found out the grandmother was alive and well.....said student never made it past her first year.....wonder why???
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
As a not-so-savvy 18-year-old, I briefly worked in retail at a Target store. I called off for the shift and the manager on the other end of the phone asked for the reason.
"I just came from a dental appointment and feel bad," I said.
"You had a dental appointment on a Sunday?" asked the manager.
Many years ago (before Nursing and understanding anaphylactic shock) I called in saying my son had been stung by a bee and I couldn't make it in. About a month later, karma had her fun with me when I crawled in bed right on top of one. Lets just say.. it's hard to shake it off when it's between you and the sheets.
As for accidently getting on a plane.. I've fantasized about accidently getting on one of those and calling my boss from a tropical paradise to explain how the luau men are accidently fanning me with leaves and adding ice to the accidental beverage in my hand.
Most ridiculous reason I've missed work: had too many things in my hands as I was leaving the house, hand got stuck and accidentally flailed my hand out and broke a window, lacerating the meat between my thumb and index finger. Blood everywhere. I just stood there looking at the window and not believing it for a few minutes.
Also: once the old, crappy door to my apartment got jammed shut and I couldn't get out. I tried to pry the door open and everything, ended up having to call the fire department and stand on the other side in humiliation as they ripped the door open and neighbors stood around clapping.
I take pictures of these things for when I come back to work, because who would believe it?
Specializes in Tele, MedSurg, SNF/LTC/AL, Wound Care.
I've always wanted to JUST ONCE call in and when they ask 'Why?' say "I have anal glaucoma"... But, seeing as I don't call out, and, my current employer is pretty OK, I don't see that happening anytime soon- But one day, oh yes, One.Day... (cue evil laughter)
Okay, this isn't really crazy. A co-worker called in sick for a Sunday shift. The only problem was her call really didn't match the picture of her that was posted on facebook. She had told everyone she was going to the "big city" a 100 miles away for an outing on Saturday. Then she posted a picture of herself "dancing on a bar". And yes the bottom of the picture had a date and time stamp on it. Can you guess what it said? Yep, 0200 on that Sunday morning.
Told my boss since obesity is a disease that I was calling in fat the next day. She looked at me and said "yeah right" then burst out laughing. Told everyone my excuse (I wasn't actually calling out).
MrsICURN14
139 Posts
if #6 was legit I would call in every day.