Survey Details Workers’ Most Ridiculous Excuses for Missing Work

(Image: Thinkstock)

When it comes to reasons for workplace absences, some workers simply go with the truth while others come up with outlandish, tall tales. From loss of false teeth, to bizarre bee attacks, according to a new CareerBuilder survey, employees tend to get pretty creative, faking sickness, and are often check up on by employers.

In the past year, 32% of workers have called in sick when not actually ill, up slightly from last year, and 30% of employees say they’ve gone to work despite actually being sick in order to save their sick days for when they’re feeling well.

The national CareerBuilder survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive, also found that 20% of workers say in the past year they called in sick but still ended up doing work from home throughout the day.

And when it comes to fakers, 30% of employers say that they have checked in on employees who have called in sick to make sure the excuse was legitimate, with 64% requiring a doctor’s note, 48% actually calling the employee, 19% checking the employee’s social media posts, and 17% having another employee call the sick employee.

The following were the top, most ridiculous excuses found via the survey:

Employee’s favorite football team lost on Sunday so needed Monday to recover
Employee was quitting smoking and was grouchy
Employee said that someone glued her doors and windows shut so she couldn’t leave the house to come to work
Employee claimed a swarm of bees surrounded his vehicle and he couldn’t make it in
Employee said the chemical in turkey made him fall asleep and he missed his shift
Employee received a threatening phone call from the electric company and needed to report it to the FBI
Employee’s fake eye was falling out of its socket
Employee got lost and ended up in another state
Employee couldn’t decide what to wear