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You are here: Home / Leadership / “I ate a toothpick” and 9 other wild excuses for calling out to work

“I ate a toothpick” and 9 other wild excuses for calling out to work

February 5, 2018 By Jennifer Azara

There’s nothing funny about the severity of this flu season. But this list of the 10 craziest excuses people have given when calling out sick will certainly give you a chuckle.

“[Cough cough] I can’t come in to work today because I’m [cough cough] … sick.”

As a manager you’ve likely gotten a few of these messages left on your voicemail. Maybe you’ve even left a few of them yourself.

Many people are legitimately sick when they call out. And then there are these folks, whose call out excuses were captured by the folks at CareerBuilder.

  • “A bear was in my yard and I am afraid to come out.”
  • “My phone exploded, and it hurt my hand.”
  • “I ate a toothpick in my food at a restaurant.”
  • “I broke my arm wrestling a female bodybuilder.” [This was a male employee.]
  • “I’m calling in “fat” because my uniform doesn’t fit.”
  • “The dog swallowed my car keys so I’m waiting until it comes out.”
  • “I left my clothes at the laundry mat.”
  • “I didn’t have enough gas to get to work.”
  • “I had to re-schedule a new manicure because some of my artificial nails fell off.”
  • “I wasn’t sure how the solar eclipse would affect me so it would be safer to stay at home.”

Have you heard an excuse that tops these? Tell us in the Comments section.

Info: press.careerbuilder.com/2017-11-16-Increased-Number-of-Workers-Calling-In-Sick-When-They-Arent-Finds-CareerBuilders-Annual-Survey

 

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: calling out sick, excuses, sick

About Jennifer Azara

“I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind leading.” -- Amy Poehler, Actress
 
I’m thrilled to have recently joined Progressive Women’s Leadership in the role of Managing Editor. I’ve worked as a writer and editor for more than 18 years, covering a variety of “beats” from CFOs to warehouse workers. But this is the one I’m most excited about. The key to editorial success is to be in constant contact with your audience – find out what info they need, what keeps them up at night. Then work tirelessly to give them that with every story. I want our site to be the first resource you go to when you have a challenge at work. This bossy woman is ready to get down to business!

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Comments

  1. agonzalez@aimtransfer.com'Andrea says

    April 6, 2018 at 1:00 pm

    Best one of all time…”I have squirrels in my house and I need to call an exterminator!” It sounded so crazy. Turned out to be true, as he presented us with the extermination receipt!

  2. marleneallen3@yahoo.com'Marlene says

    April 6, 2018 at 5:27 pm

    How about: “The garage door opener won’t work due to a power outage and I couldn’t get my car out of the garage. ” Apparently she didn’t know you can pull the release and open the garage door manually.

  3. jen.feuers@gmail.com'Jen says

    April 9, 2018 at 4:25 pm

    No lie, I had an employee call in an openly tell me that she was not coming to work because she was hiding out from the police. Then, when she was terminated, she had her mother call me to ask for her job back.

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