In these uncertain times, at least one thing is sure: Employees will never run out of bizarre excuses for missing work.
CareerBuilder‘s just released its latest compendium of outrageous explanations and, we’re pleased to say, the quality of the entries remains as high as ever.
Check out these real-life excuses employers provided CareerBuilder researchers:
- Employee’s 12-year-old daughter stole his car and he had no other way to work. Employee didn’t want to report it to the police.
- Employee said bats got in her hair.
- Employee said a refrigerator fell on him.
- Employee was in line at a coffee shop when a truck carrying flour backed up and dumped the flour into her convertible.
- Employee said a deer bit him during hunting season.
- Employee ate too much at a party.
- Employee fell out of bed and broke his nose.
- Employee got a cold from a puppy.
- Employee’s child stuck a mint up his nose and had to go to the ER to remove it.
- Employee hurt his back chasing a beaver.
- Employee got his toe caught in a vent cover.
- Employee had a headache after going to too many garage sales.
- Employee’s brother-in-law was kidnapped by a drug cartel while in Mexico.
- Employee drank anti-freeze by mistake and had to go to the hospital.
- Employee was at a bowling alley and a bucket filled with water crashed through the ceiling and hit her on the head.
Actually, there’s more to the research than wacko excuses.
First, there’s the pattern of absenteeism. While employers reported heightened absenteeism around the holidays, the prime time of year when companies say employees call in sick is in the first quarter:
- January through March – 34%
- April through June – 13%
- July through September – 30%, and
- October through December – 23%.
Then there’s the matter of how workers let companies know they won’t be coming in:
- Phone call – 84%
- Email – 24%, and
- Text message – 11%.
We’re expecting to see Twitter on that list soon.
Finally, CareerBuilder surveyed how employers respond to employee absences.
Fifteen percent of employers said they have fired a worker who missed work without a valid excuse. Twenty-eight percent have checked up on an employee, citing the following examples:
- 69% required a doctor’s note
- 52% called the employee
- 19% had another employee call the employee, and
- 16% drove by the employee’s home.