The Daily BuzzMost outrageous excuses employees give when calling in sick
Cold and flu season is just around the corner, but many people who manage to stay healthy will still call in sick, and some have some outrageous reasons for playing hooky from work.
A new survey by Chicago-based jobs website CareerBuilder finds just under a third of people have called in sick to run errands and do other things even though they are well.
But if you're looking for a more creative excuse than just saying you're sick or your dog ate your homework, CareerBuilder sifted through all the excuses and highlighted the best ones.
One employee said his 12-year-old daughter stole his car so he had no other way to work.
Another employee called in to say a refrigerator fell on him and one said a deer bit him. A truck carrying flour dumped it into a convertible preventing one person from going to work and one person ate too much at a party.
The survey may have been conducted in the U.S., but one of the excuses seems very Canadian. An employee couldn't work because he hurt his back chasing a beaver.
While these all seem pretty unlikely, my mother has used one of the excuses on the list and it was absolutely the truth. An employee's child stuck a mint up his nose and had to go to the ER to remove it.
"While outrageous events are known to happen, frequent absences and over-the-top excuses can start to bring your credibility into question," says Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder, in a statement. "Many employers are more flexible in their definition of a sick day and will allow employees to use them to recharge and take care of personal needs. This is especially evident post-recession when employees have taken on added responsibilities and are working longer days. Your best bet is to be up front with your manager."
The survey also found that while most people still call in sick, some are bypassing the phone and going digital. About a quarter of people use email and 11 per cent send a text message.
And while employees may think they are safe once making the call or sending an email, Fifteen per cent of employers say they have fired a worker for calling in sick without a legitimate reason and 28 per cent have checked up on the employee. Many employers require a doctor's note, some call the employee, some have another coworker call the sick employee and some drive by the employee's home.
"Any time a worker feels he or she needs to devise a fictitious reason for taking a day off, there's likely an underlying trust issue with a manager," Haefner says to Forbes. "But often times workers call in sick when they're just mentally exhausted and need a day away from the office."
Haefner suggests honesty is the best policy and if calling in sick to let the employer know promptly.
CareerBuilder has been doing the survey for several years and this year reached out to more than 4,300 workers and 2,600 employers.
Last year, some of the best excuses were a chicken attacked an employee's mom, an employee got his finger stuck in a bowling ball, a cow broke into an employee's house, foot caught in a garbage disposal, not feeling clever that day and got towed to the Canadian side after running out of gas on Lake Erie.
(Reuters photo)
