Stupidest reasons for calling out, or being late

[draftermatt]

The call center I worked at a while ago had an interesting policy.

After the "I'm not feeling myself" call out that became my policy too.

My exact policy is I don't care if you're sick, hungover, tired, spent the whole night ****ing your significant other, etc. Tell me you're not coming in and leave it at that. If it stretches past 1-2 days then I'll need to know what's up

[PCGameGuy]

MY 'favorite' was when I worked for a security company. Night shift at a potato chip factory, gotta keep those Dorito bandits from stealing the goods.

So I came down with a nasty virus, 104 temp at the height of it, and called in to let them know I was not able to work. An hour later they call and say no one can cover, I have to work. I re-explain that I have a high fever and am UNABLE to work, so they try again. 30 minutes prior to shift they call and say I have no choice, have to go. At that point I told them I wasn't going, they said if I didn't I was fired, so I quit.

I get called 30 minutes later and told I can't quit, I have to get to the site. I explain that of the many things I can and cannot do, quitting is certainly my right and they best get someone out there because I'm not an employee anymore!

Yeah, turns out they don't even try to call for a replacement until the third try to get you to work. I don't miss that job so much.

[InsanityInc]

My parents live in the country. With the way the house and 2 garages are placed their driveway tends to drift shut in the wintertime. Had a pretty good snow storm one year, and had a drift that was almost taller than the garage right in front of it. Mom calls in, her manager says OK, but doesn't really believe that she can't get her car out of the garage. She took a few pictures of the garage and the drift, then hired a guy to dig her out.

Took the pictures into work, and her boss never gave her a minute of grief after that when she had to call off because of snow drifts in the driveway.

[AccountingDrone]

I called out one fine morning because a tree decided to drop a huge limb covered with snow and ice on my car ... I took in a picture if it.

I also had to call out work because a storm wind knocked a tree limb onto a power line, and it was bouncing up and down in my driveway setting little fires. I took a vid clip of that and emailed it to HR at 2 am when it happened, and an updated clip at 3 am, and at 4 am, and at 5 am and again at 2 PM when the electric company finally showed up.

Pretty pitiful that the FIRE in the driveway woke me up and it took 12 hours for the phone company to bother to show up to do something about it. At least it was constantly drizzling to put the fires out. I made the electric company give me a copy of the paperwork with the call in time, and the repair teams arrival team and gave it to HR and told them that they could take up my absence with the power company.

[SuperDan]

A former manager back in my grocery days shared a story of a call-off at a store he'd managed at previously.

Apparently this guy was known for "questionable" call-offs. Like saying he's sick but you hear a party in the background, that sort of thing.

Well one day, he calls an hour in advance of his shift and says he doesn't think he'll make it in because his snake is wrapped around his arm and won't release.

Naturally, the manager is on edge. He begins to put together the case to have this person suspended or fired for dishonesty (terminations can only be approved by loss prevention or the store manager, this manager was an assistant). He starts preparing the write-up when the person calls again saying they still can't get the snake to release and he's headed to the hospital.

The next day, the person shows for work. He has what appears to be rope burns around his right arm. Worker says they ended up killing and cutting off the snake. The manager was thinking "Nice try" and told the person they would need to "have a talk" later.

Not half an hour later, the worker comes running to the manager with a copy of the local newspaper. The worker managed to make the front page of the paper with a picture of a medium sized boa constrictor wrapped around his arm as he is loaded into an ambulance.

The write-up went to the shredder and its electronic counterpart was deleted before it was even seen by the worker or store manager. The manager was left absolutely speechless.