One of the best reasons not to come to work I have ever heard … there’s a snake in the employee’s car & he can’t get it out.
When a manager gets a cell phone call at 9:15am on a Monday, it’s likely an employee calling in sick/dead/kidnapped. I’ve only been in charge of this team for a few months, but I’m not totally ignorant of how employees call in at the last moment on a Friday/Monday (e-mail makes it easier these days, since you don’t have to do the fake cough).
But I wasn’t really ready to grasp the full reality of “employee has to take his car into the dealer because a black snake crawled into the dash and won’t come out no matter what I do so I need them to take the car apart and get it out” phone call.
He detailed all of the things he tried to get the snake out … smoke, turing on the heat, turning on the AC, using the radio … I tried not to laugh.
My response: okay, but you have to bring pictures 🙂
I still have the best computer industry excuse for not coming to work: taking a sick goat to the vet. I could actually hear the gears turn in my manager’s head as he evaluated the honesty of my situation … then determined that I could not have made that up & let me off for the day. Everybody at work seemed very interested in the welfare of my goat. I thought this was a nice gesture, until I discovered that many Indians eat goat. I had to explain that the goat was fine & there would be no leftovers.
I don’t think my employee, a new father with a cute little baby, is after a free meal in his dashboard. I’d much rather spend my money at the mechanic removing a snake then listening to the mother’s sleep-deprived scenarios of how snakes may eat her baby. I’m sure Samuel L. Jackson will be there to save her.
Leave a Reply