What is the craziest excuse you’ve ever used for calling out of work? No, this isn’t a game of Truth or Dare; it was a survey question posed by CareerBuilder and the results are quite comical! Employers have reported hearing excuses that range from downright absurd to painfully embarrassing. For example:
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- I just put a casserole in the oven.
- My plastic surgery for enhancement purposes needed some “tweaking” to get it just right.
- I was sitting in the bathroom and my feet and legs fell asleep. When I stood up, I fell and broke my ankle.
- I had been at the casino all weekend and still had money left to play with on Monday morning.
- I woke up in a good mood and didn’t want to ruin it.
- I had a “lucky night” and didn’t know where I was.
- I got stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store and couldn’t get out.
- I had a gallstone they wanted to heal holistically.
- I caught my uniform on fire by putting it in the microwave to dry.
- I accidentally got on a plane.
I don’t know how someone “accidentally” gets on an airplane, but it’s definitely a crazy excuse! The list seems like something you would expect from The Tonight Show, not from a website that’s dedicated to helping people find jobs! CareerBuilder also found that one in five employers have fired employees for giving fake excuses!
Most of the respondents said they do check in with their employees by either asking for a doctor’s note or calling the employee to check in. Some employers have even gone to such extremes as to drive by the employee’s house. Is it just me, or does this remind you of Ferris Bueller too?
Some of the employers have even caught their employees lying due to social media posts. At least one in four employers has caught workers lying about why they missed work because of something they posted to social media. Of these employers, only 22 percent have actually fired the employee after discovering the social media posts. So what’s the craziest excuse you’ve ever heard? We want to know. Comment below or send us an e-mail to HRSBTstories@blr.com!
The sad thing is that some of these are probably legitimate, in terms of being truthful. They’re also a troubling sign about the employee’s intelligence level.