E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSWhat might be surprising are some of the more creative excuses they've tried to use to get out of work, and just how many employers are out to catch them.
The online poll conducted by Harris Interactive surveyed 3,976 workers and 2,494 U.S. hiring managers and human resource workers. In addition to raw numbers, Careerbuilder also collected the memorable excuses bosses had heard.
How about the employee who called in sick because they were "upset after watching 'The Hunger Games'"? Or the guy who said he "forgot he was hired for the job?" Or the person who couldn't come in to work because they were "sick from reading too much"?
Other eyebrow-raising reasons included "toe stuck in faucet," "dead grandmother being exhumed for police investigation," "bird bite," "broken heart," and "sobriety tool wouldn't allow car to start."
What motivates the strategies behind these excuses? "Some subscribe to a 'less is more' mentality while others may feel the more detail they provide, the more believable the excuse will be," said Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder vice president of human resources.
And here's one to stoke your paranoia. Bosses may even recruit your co-workers to ferret out the truth -- 18 percent of employers said they tried this ruse.
Employees fraudulently cash in sick days for a variety of reasons, but basically it's to carve off extra time for themselves. If they weren't actually sick, 34 percent said they called in sick because they didn't feel like going to work, 29 percent said they "needed to relax," 22 percent needed to make a doctor's appointment, 16 percent were catching up on sleep, and 15 percent wanted to run errands.
Those who call in fake sick days "may be repeat offenders for truancy or may be concerned about how their boss may perceive them," said Haefner. "However, if you’re caught lying, that can have more serious consequences and bring your professionalism and reliability into question. It’s better to be honest."
Should an employer catch you in your lie, it could lead to them becoming a former employer. Seventeen percent of bosses said they fired an employee for giving a a fake excuse. Then you'll have all the sick days you need.
Leave a Comment:
They were mental health days. My job was driving me nuts.
"Laid up," that was the excuse given to me. I can't work because I'm laid up. I asked what is laid up and he said I'm drunk and will be for a week.
What a sentence! I am completely lost by the triple double negative
@ Mark-423819
Too funny. I call these people the "not, not" people. They have lost their ability to communicate.
Example: "Why are these people not not doing what they shouldn't be doing in the first place."
I work with someone who talks like that and it drives everyone nuts!!!
Of course people use fake excuses. Bosses get upset when you say" I won't be in to work today because you are a d!ckhead and I really don't want to put up with someone like you today, Mr d!ckhead."
What about all of the days I come in feeling sick and still truck through the day? Why don't they write about that? Or how little time people have with their families anymore due to demanding work schedules?
Remember when people actually had the weekends off to be with their kids? Now both parents are working different shifts at different jobs to pay the bills.
Maybe Americans need more vacation/sick/maternity days...like the REST OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD GETS. Americans are overworked, tired and stressed...busy paying for everyone else!
I have faked sicked days, I've also gone to work with freshly broken bones, pneumonia, or your garden variety flu. If work has to get done I'm will to do it but if there isn't work available I don't feel bad about not coming in.
I am one of those who get to hear the excuses... best one was i got no electricity and i cant see to get dressed.
Rofl, that celestial body colloquially known as the SUN is so unreliable.
birdman, having to get up at four to get to work, I can tell you the sun is not available
touche
The one redeeming fact of having to get up early like that is there are almost no jerks on the road, or at least a lot less.
J-birdman, sometimes people also live in basements where the sun doesn't reach them, as sad as that sounds...
I don't think managers can be held above not faking sick days. My manager had more excuses for not working than Anna Russo has shoes.
My wife is a supervisor. She got one the other day when she asked a new young employee about her unexcused absences. The young lady said she was a lesbian and was so upset her parents might find out it was keeping her from coming to work. Her job is 400 miles from where her parents live. You can't make this stuff up !
If I had a deadline or a ton of work, I would drag myself to work, but every once in a while I would come down with SOW flu (Sick of Work) and take a day or two off just because I needed to. Sometimes you just need to take a break, but folks, creative thinking isn't needed, follow the KISS rule, Keep It Simple, Stupid. Just to clarify, when I retired I had over six months of sick leave on the books.
MCM- exactly. If you have time available and just need time off for whatever reason, a simple 'I don't feel well' generally works.
I will admit to one occasion in college, when I worked in retail, calling in with 'cramps' when I really had a hangover... If you got a male supervisor in the store on the phone, you were guaranteed not to get any follow-up questions on that one.
I took a call from a guy who called off because he was having "disney spells". My co-workers and I still laugh about that guy!
@Devils son: maybe his kids made him watch a Hannah Montana marathon. That would do it to me...
Best one I got was a kid who called and told me his mother didn't want him to come in. I said okay, hung up, and called back. His mother answered the phone. He was there 15 minutes later...
The foul proof excuse is food poisoning and diarrhea. Nobody needs to go to the doctor for that but they certainly shouldn't come to work. I wish employers would just allow mental health days because I believe most people skip work FOR mental health days. You can consider, "relaxation," "don't feel like going to work," and "sleep" as ALL health issues, just mostly mental health issues.
You are correct. Empoyer policies drive a lot of this. My wife's employer records two kinds of leave. Sick and Annual (aka vacation). IF you don't use your vacation leave it adds up, carries over and you get paid for part of it upon termination. Sick leave accumulates but you never get paid for it if you don't use it. So people earn a day- take a day. They should forget leave distinctions and just have "leave". Let it accrue and pay the ones who have balances when they terminate. Let people take off for any reason without having to report it. People who do the work and advance the company should be entitled to get paid for unused leave. After all, the fakers are at the beach using their leave while someone else stayed and got the job done. Policy should favor the worker contributor and less so otward the slackers and fakers.
Other eyebrow-raising reasons included "toe stuck in faucet," "dead grandmother being exhumed for police investigation," "bird bite," "broken heart," and "sobriety tool wouldn't allow car to start."
Those were probably true. But if you do go to work when you are sick, you're also the bad guy for exposing the rest of the people to what you have. Some employers assume you are lying without even "investigating".
Broken heart syndrome exists and has caused fatalities. It is due to extreme stress and has caused 'stunned myocardium ' which may stop beating in severe cases. Please review the cardiology literature before you call it a lame excuse.
I agree!
"Laid up," that was the excuse given to me. I can't work because I'm laid up. I asked what is laid up and he said I'm drunk and will be for a week.
Honestly, my workplace calls all "benefit time" PTO. How you use it is up to you. And I think that is the best idea. I used to work for a boss who said "Your sick time is your benefit ... I don't care if you call in from the golf course ... if that is how you want to use your sick time, who am I to complain. We lose our sick time if we don't use it. We all need a day off now and again!" I gave him a lot of credit for saying that. This is why I think general PTO time makes a lot more sense. If you get to use it for vacation because you are never sick, AWESOME, but if you have to use it for illness or a mental health day, it is there.
That is what we use at the hospital where I work. I believe all hospitals are now using PTO. Your time; use as you wish. The only drawback is no more "paid" holidays; they come out of PTO as well.
If my employee calls me from a golf course and wants to use PTO without reasonable notice... he will have all the PTO he wants for as long as he wants. YOU'RE FIRED!!!
I used to work at a place which had a point system in which you would be fired if you took off without a doctors excuse...........My one friend use to take off regularly but always had an excuse..........The one boss was wondering who this doctor was that kept writing him excuses.........Turned out he was a professional witch doctor that lived in the city and practiced out of his apartment.
I think "broken heart" is a legit excuse. Of course, not for a sustained period of time, but for one day? Absolutely.
I was dumped out of the blue a few days before we were supposed to move in together. It was the worst night of my life. I took the day - and my boss was glad I did. There was no way I would have been productive at work - if anything, I would have been a distraction. And the stress symptoms impacted everything from digestion to a massive headache.
I went through a nasty break up several years ago too after being married for 14 years. A couple of times I called my boss and just let her know that I wasn't able to face the world that day and she was OK with it.
I'm glad to know that there are other employers out there like mine. We are human, not machines, and breakups are devastating. I hope things are better for you now. I'm still working on it. :-/
Drive past the house? Call on the phone to see if the employee is really sick? Is there any wonder why employees feel sick AND tired of their employer?
I once worked for a manager who insisted I should not come to work if I was sick, and did not believe it if I was sick and I stayed home. She would call me while I was out sick. When I needed FMLA, they refused and said the department couldn't afford that.
She and her cronies are cheapskate republicans.
Really? Cheapskate Republicans...LOL.
Bad management is bad management and not a reflection of political leanings.
A business subject to FMLA can be sued if an employee meeting the requirements isn't allowed to take the time off as mandated. I suspect that there is more to the story.
Republicans?? Really?? That is so lame. By the way, you are entitled to take FMLA for certain reasons. It is federal law and your employer cannot refuse if you meet the criteria. You most likely didn't meet the criteria...of the evil Republicans!!!
This falls more into the "calling in late" category than calling in sick, but thought I'd share anyway. In the early 80's, I got a call from an employee who said he'd be late because the night before he and his wife got frisky and when he ripped off and threw her padded bra, neither of them noticed it landed on their alarm clock and the next morning the padding muffled the sound of the alarm.
I'm the manager so I don't ever call in, I have to answer to myself. But as far as my employees go, we offer bonuses for daily production so they want to be here to make sure they get their share, incentives for attendance work like a charm.
Good on you for not calling in. Hopefully you quarantine yourself in your office to prevent spreading your germs. Otherwise you are only increasing your company's health insurance costs to deal with the people YOU make sick, not to mention their covered dependents. Go ahead and look at how often your underlings are out sick or staying home to tend to sick children. Then ask yourself if you were sick at work prior. You do nobody any favors showing up sick. It's selfish and antisocial.
I think she meant she doesn't need to call anyone and give a reason/excuse to take a sick day, since she's the manager and "answers to herself"
Why does it matter how and when employees use sick days? They are given the days to use and it seems to me that needing a day away from the office is a legitimate use of those days. If you don't want employees to use sick days, don't give them sick days. As long as the work is getting done and employees are not falling short in other ways, leave them alone to use their sick days as they need to use them.
This is how my husband handles it, he just calls in and says I'm taking a sick day... no worries & no excuses. His boss is fine with it because my husband is always caught up with his work & makes everyone happy while there.
I agree. I have long wished that employers would just give us a certain number of paid "off" days per year, to use as we wish. Differentiating between "sick", "personal", and "vacation" days, with related stipulations (you can convert X number of sick days to personal days; vacation days can be accrued year to year, but sick days can't; when you accrue a certain number of vacation days, you HAVE to use some of them; you can use as little as half an hour of sick time but not of personal time) seems silly and pointless.
I once called in sick when I wasn't, and drove into Boston, Mass. for a day trip. As I walked down Tremont Street, I stopped in my tracks. There, approaching me, was my boss. I expected the worst, but she came up to me, smiled, and softly said, "I called in sick too. This will be our little secret!"
You're one lucky bastard!!!
I work for a place and they USED to pay certain people for unused sick days and vacation time. At the end of the year managers would get those unused hours paid back to them so (he)they would show up sick as dogs and never take any time off. Of course one's wife was(as I heard) a shrew, so he got out of the house whenever he possibly could. They discontinuned it years ago. Now you can donate time to others who may need it.
I tell my boss that I have lots of liquids coming out of both ends and he tells me to stay home and not come in until I am completely over it. This is usually good for at least 2 days off.
Honesty is always the best policy. Of course, it depends on the relationship you have with your manager. Fortunately I have a manager who prefers direct honesty (almost to a fault) and when I've needed a Mental Anguish Day I tell her exactly that.
The best attempted lateness excuse was when a co-worker called his boss to tell him he would be in really late. This was before the cell phone era began. Here is the conversation:
Employee - "I'm gonna be really late this morning. The subway is stuck in the tunnel between stations."
Boss - "Then how are you calling me?"
Employee - "Click!"
"dead grandmother being exhumed for police investigation"
my favorite of the bunch. how can that be made up? even if it is, you've got to give her the day off for creativity.