And only 5 months till Football Season.
GO METS!
Ten Excuses for Missing Work
by Michele Marrinan
Monster Contributing Writer
We’ve all been there. It’s a beautiful day, and you can’t bear the thought of going into work. So you call in with some excuse about feeling ill. But you know in your bones that your boss doesn’t buy it.
The feeling ill excuse is a short-term solution that won’t win you any fans at the office -- someone else will have to pick up the slack or you’ll miss deadlines. And it won’t help your career any. Here are 10 "excuses" -- five smart and five not-so-smart -- to help you save face and your sanity.
Smart Excuses No one can argue with performance. Come in two or three hours early -- or stay late -- for a week or two. Then negotiate a day off in advance. "Really work when you’re there, so you’ll be able to feel good about taking time off," says Andrea Nierenberg, president of The Nierenberg Group, a management consulting and personal marketing practice in New York City. For this one to work, you’ve got to have a job that requires you to meet and court current and prospective clients. Neil Simpkins, an account executive at Oxford Communications in Lambertville, New Jersey, has used this one successfully. One note of caution: Meet the client; don’t just say you did. This excuse will get you half a day or so off. Make the appointment first thing in the morning or late in the day, say around 3 p.m. You can leave the office by 2:30 p.m. and get home (hopefully) by 4 p.m. The shortened day will help you recharge, especially if you schedule it on a Friday afternoon. Before you dismiss this one, think about it: Who can argue? "It’s such an embarrassing topic that nobody will ever challenge it," says Jennifer Newman, vice president of Lippe Taylor Public Relations. She has used this excuse -- and had it used on her -- successfully. "It’s one of those things that men honestly have no clue about, and women can sympathize with." One important point: Don’t use this one if you’re a man. It’ll never work. This is an excellent way to give yourself a break if your company allows it. Although you’ll need to do some work, you can generally get away with a shortened day. And you’ll cut out your commuting time.
Not-So-Smart Excuses Don’t ever use this excuse if it’s not true. You’re employer will lose all trust in you. "I had an employee whose mother died -- twice," says David Wear, a PR executive in Virginia. "He also had the misfortune of losing all his grandparents (12 of them) during a two-year period." When she was a manager at IBM, Marilynn Mobley heard it all. This one still makes her laugh. The employee apparently took Tylenol 3 with codeine instead of a vitamin, because the bottles looked alike. This is another one that Mobley didn’t buy. An employee said that a power failure was preventing him from opening his power-operated garage door. "I reminded him that there’s a pull chain on it for just such cases," she says. Mary Dale Walters, a communications specialist at CCH Incorporated, couldn’t believe this one. A former employee needed an entire day to figure out where she had to go to vote in the 1996 presidential election. This one is so vague that it rarely works. It could mean anything from fatigue to an appointment with your hairdresser, and your boss knows it.
Don't lie, no matter which excuse you use. "I’m not a believer in playing hooky, because it always comes back to you," Nierenberg says. "Don’t lie to your boss or your supervisor or your clients. You're guaranteed they will be the ones you’ll run into while you’re walking down the street in your jeans."
Find a job that makes you look forward to work. Create a My Monster account and start searching today.