Excuses for Missing Work

We've all been there. It's a beautiful day, and you can't bear the thought of going into work. So you call in with some excuse about feeling ill, but you know in your bones that your boss doesn't buy it.
The feeling ill excuse is a short-term solution that won't win you any fans at the office -- someone else will have to pick up the slack, or you'll miss deadlines. And it won't help your career any. Here are 10 excuses -- five smart and five not-so-smart -- to help you save face and your sanity.

Smart Excuses

• I've Earned It: No one can argue with performance. Come in two or three hours early -- or stay late -- for a week or two. Then negotiate a day off in advance. "Really work when you're there, so you'll be able to feel good about taking time off," says Andrea Nierenberg, president of The Nierenberg Group, a management consulting and personal marketing practice.
• I'm Playing Golf with a Client: For this one to work, you've got to have a job that requires you to meet and court current and prospective clients. Neil Simpkins, an account executive at Oxford Communications, has used this one successfully. One note of caution: Meet the client; don't just say you did.
• I Have a Doctor's Appointment: This excuse will get you out of work for a half-day or so. Make the appointment first thing in the morning or late in the day, say around 3 p.m. You can leave the office by 2:30 p.m. and get home (hopefully) by 4 p.m. The shortened day will help you recharge, especially if you schedule it on a Friday afternoon.
• I Have Cramps: Before you dismiss this one, think about it: Who can argue? "It's such an embarrassing topic that nobody will ever challenge it," says Jennifer Newman, vice president of Lippe Taylor Public Relations. She has used this excuse -- and had it used on her -- successfully. "It's one of those things that men honestly have no clue about, and women can sympathize with." One important point: Don't use this one if you're a man. It'll never work.
• I'm Working from Home: This is an excellent way to give yourself a break if your company allows it. Although you'll need to do some work, you can generally get away with a shortened day. And you'll eliminate your commuting time.

Not-So-Smart Excuses

• There's a Death in the Family: Don't ever use this excuse if it's not true. Your employer will lose all trust in you. "I had an employee whose mother died -- twice," says David Wear, a Virginia PR executive. "He also had the misfortune of losing all his grandparents -- 12 of them -- during a two-year period."
• I'm Too Sleepy: When she was a manager at IBM, Marilynn Mobley heard it all. This one still makes her laugh: The employee apparently took Tylenol 3 with codeine instead of a vitamin, because the bottles looked alike.
• I Can't Get My Car Out of the Garage: This is another one that Mobley didn't buy. An employee said that a power failure was preventing him from opening his power-operated garage door. "I reminded him that there's a pull chain on it for just such cases," she says.
• I Can't Find My Polling Place: Mary Dale Walters, a communications specialist at CCH, couldn't believe this one. A former employee needed an entire day to figure out where she had to go to vote in the presidential election.
• I Have a Personal Emergency: This one is so vague that it rarely works. It could mean anything from fatigue to an appointment with your hairdresser, and your boss knows it.

Don't lie, no matter which excuse you use. "I'm not a believer in playing hooky, because it always comes back to you," Nierenberg says. "Don't lie to your boss, your supervisor or your clients. You're guaranteed they will be the ones you'll run into while you're walking down the street in your jeans."

Another copy and paste post without comment.

http://career-advice.comcast.monster...c_n=comcast801

[Sailor Steve]

But this one is funny.

[AVGWarhawk]

I like my boss. He often says to take a day off for sanity reasons. Works for me. I think......

[Sammi79]

Yes I have heard nearly all of those more than once. Most commonly I get 'Me and my girlfriend just had an earth shattering row, I can't leave the house just yet' or 'I've been at the hospital all night, my girlfriend had a [insert dangerous female only condition of your choice here]' and of course the standard no phone call, which means I have to call you, and mostly get 'This is the O2 answering service, If you'd like to leave a' *click* why you gutless...grrr.. which annoys me more than blaming your girlfriend which is also pretty lame.

My favourite of all time has to be 'But it's still dark outside!' - 'Yes, [name], it is still dark, so I take it you're still in bed then?' - 'I err... Oh sorry I thought you meant 5pm...' The first bit slew me though I just couldn't bring myself to be angry after that.

What ever happened to..'I'm not feeling well, I'm not comming to work today'?

[GoldenRivet]

My lamest yet true "cant make it to work excuse"?

Well here goes.

At the time that i was working for the airlines i had a 90 mile road commute that required me to dedicate 2 full hours to driving if i was going to make it to work on time for the required sign in time 45 minutes prior to departure.

I was living in a duplex and our driveway asphalt had been eroding away quite steadily for about a year.

Well a hurricane that had been downgraded to a tropical storm when it made land fall passed through our area and we had some very very hard rainfall for about 3 straight days without breaks (on my days off of course). Concerns had arisen about the possibility of floods, but the storm subsided and the city's storm water drain system was not overwhelmed thankfully.

At the time, my duplex i lived in was situated atop a small hill, all total about 6 feet above street level as were the other homes on my street which were arranged side by side. The fact that i was on a hill would have been good news if there were floods but at any rate, as im sure you can imagine, my driveway formed sort of a valley between "my hill" and the neighbor's hill.

When i headed out to the car at 6am to make my 2 hour commute I discovered that about a 2 ft wide section of my driveway had been washed out, and the "ditch" that had now formed in the middle of my driveway was about 18 inches deep (i measured it to see how deep it was as it was full of water)! This "ditch" spanned the width of my driveway from one side to the other where water had been rushing down the street for the past 72 hours.

I couldnt drive the car through the yard as it was a near vertical incline from the driveway into either mine or my neighbors yard and besides that im not driving my car in my yard after 3 days of rain even if i could as it would likely get stuck.

of course the tropical storm had mostly unaffected my "base" about 90 miles away other than perhaps a few clouds and sprinkles here and there so when i called to report this unusual set of circumstances they thought i was crazy and would not allow me to drop my trip, or even a portion of it.

I called around for about 30 minutes and located a vehicle i could borrow, my dad let me use his truck. He drove it to the house and parked in the street and i loaded up my bags and headed out dropping him off on the way out of town.

I averaged about 90 mph on my way to work, and managed to make it to work about 5 minutes late assuring them over the phone that i was in fact inside the airport terminal but not quite to a computer where i could "sign in" for my trip.

I wish i had my iPhone at the time... i would have taken several pictures and e mailed them instantly to my chief pilot asking him for either a solution to the problem or a PVD, PO or a dropped trip sequence.

The insurance company that handled our property informed us that the area had been officially labeled as a "disaster area"... we had no out of pocket expenses and the entire driveway was replaced.

[Jimbuna]

I can't make it in today, I'm too busy working at the competitors across the town.