Most Unusual Sick-Day Excuses

from Careerbuilder.com

A new survey by CareerBuilder.com finds 32 percent of workers have called in sick to work when feeling fine. One in 10 admitted to doing so three times or more in the last year. One in four workers said they consider their sick days to be equivalent to vacation days and treat them as such. Comparing genders, women were more likely to take a sick day when they were feeling fine. Thirty-seven percent of women called in sick with bogus explanations compared to 26 percent of men, the survey said. On the employer side, men were more likely to terminate an employee for an unexcused sick day, CareerBuilder reported. Thirty-five percent of men said they have fired an employee for calling in sick with a fake excuse compared to 15 percent of women.

Workers who are chronic offenders may be running out of ideas. Forty-one percent of hiring managers said they have received unusual or suspicious sick day alibis. Sixty-two percent did not believe them, according to the survey. When asked to share the most unusual excuses employees gave for missing work, hiring managers offered the following examples:

1) Employee was poisoned by his mother-in-law.
2) A buffalo escaped from the game reserve and kept charging the employee every time she tried to go to her car from her house.
3) Employee was feeling all the symptoms of his expecting wife.
4) Employee called from his cell phone, said he was accidentally locked in a restroom stall and no one was around to let him out.
5) Employee broke his leg snowboarding off his roof while drunk.
6) Employee's wife said he couldn't come into work because he had a lot of chores to do around the house.
7) One of the walls in the employee's home fell off the night before.
8) Employee's mother was in jail.
9) A skunk got into the employee's house and sprayed all of his uniforms.
10) Employee had bad hiccups.
11) Employee blew his nose so hard, his back went out.
12) Employee's horses got loose and were running down the highway.
13) Employee was hit by a bus while walking.
14) Employee's dog swallowed her bus pass.
15) Employee was sad.