According to CareerBuilder’s annual survey nearly three-in-ten U.S. workers phoned in sick with a fake excuse over the last year.
Employees called, emailed, or even texted their excuse for being absent, and most presented a ho-hum reason for why – but some were just so unusually wonderful we couldn’t not share them!
So without further ado, here are some of our favorite real-life examples employees gave their employers for ditching work:
- 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’s dead grandmother was being exhumed for a police investigation.
- 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 was upset after watching “The Hunger Games”.
- 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.
- Employee was suffering from a broken heart.
- Employee said a refrigerator fell on him.
- Employee forgot he had been hired for the job.
- Employee had a headache after going to too many garage sales.
- Employee’s hair turned orange from dying her hair at home.
Want to learn more? Check out this great infographic summarizing all the survey results.