I try not to take sick days unless I have to. The few times I have been absent from the hotel, were when I had food poisoning (happens more often than you think - I'm pretty absent minded when it comes to checking expiration dates on food - I've had food poisoning 3 times in the past year).
Currently, due to a mass exodus of staff, I am training 4 people. A couple of nights ago, one of the trainees didn't show up. Instead, he'd sent his housemate who was one of the other trainees. My absentee had rung in and told the duty manager that he was sick. The duty manager hadn't asked how; he'd just accepted this. However, I know them a bit better and wanted to make sure he was okay, so asked my arrival.
Our conversation went something along the lines of:
"He can't walk at the moment"
"What?!"
"No, he's okay! He just needs a day or two to recover"
"Why can't he walk?"
"He was wearing boxers that were a bit tight too long and they've really badly chafed his legs. They were bleeding"
"He cut himself on his boxers!?"
I really wish the duty manager had asked him what the problem was when he rang in. This is the poorest sick day excuse I have ever heard. It begs the question, when he noticed his boxers were hurting him, why did he not change underwear? However, given the trainee, I can believe that this thought never actually occurred to him...
Is there a worse reason to take a sick day?
About Me
- D
- Whilst I used to get idiots inebriated on over-priced drinks, I'm now in the position of management where I have to deal with the results...
10 comments:
It's not amusing, but on one occassion I took a call from one of our night team members saying they weren't coming in because they had a headache. Not a migrane or anything like that, just your everyday headache.
Needless to say the DM wasn't happy when I passed the message on to her and said she would be phoning him back to tell him o cart his arse on in.
I think my favourite excuse is: "Sorry, I got my arm stuck in the Cornflakes box"... ;-)
There's some good reading here about taking a "sickie". I like the term "duvet day", which I'd not heard before.
Oh, and for that sort of "chaffing", I can heartily recommend "Sudocreme". I swear by it, and there's a great review of it here. The guy even sums it up by saying "Basically, Sudocreme is sent from above because..." which should give you an idea of just how much he likes it! ;-)
I hate the way you cant edit comments... grrrr.
Anyway, what I said was, I was pleased to announce I had never had my underwear cause such an issue and that the excuse was pretty lame.
You sure he just didn't have "chefs' arse?"
He said he was bleeding, so it would have to be a pretty serious case of 'chef's arse'.
That said, even taking a sick day for 'chef's arse' is quite pathetic...
My favourite was a Receptionist who called up and said "I'm sick". When asked what of she replied "Sick of the Hotel!"
Somehow she managed to keep her job for about six years!
I once got sunburned SO badly (in a two piece bathing suit) that I seriously could not wear clothes. Even sleeping on the satin sheets was an agony. Fortunately my boss, who had seen me right after I incurred the sunburn, didn't bust my chops too much, instead noting in the diary "anon- called in naked. back in two days."
True story. And yes, I felt totally lame.
My ex had to cover for another member of staff who took a Wednesday off to go to a family funeral. Nothing was heard from him until Friday afternoon, when he rang up to say "I'm way too drunk to come in - I'll see you all on Monday!"
I took a day off... not a sick day... because my Internet was out and the only appointments available were all day during the workday.
What makes this good? I work for the Internet provider in question.
/sigh
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