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So 9L and I were discussing this on our last hike and I've heard some pretty outlandish tales to get out of work simply because no one wants to work, but what are some of the greatest excuses you have used or heard of to make sure you were able to attend a group hike or an event or just to get out of real life responsibilities to be able to hike??
You know...like faking the death of an Uncle out of state so you can snag bereavement time and take 4 days off of work (paid of course) to backpack the Grand Canyon...or something like that.

The Hippy wrote:like faking the death of an Uncle out of state so you can snag bereavement time and take 4 days off of work (paid of course) to backpack the Grand Canyon...

Speaking from experience? ;)

@paulhubbard I don't know what you're talking about [-X

Did have a doctor friend of write me a note so I could go off and do a job interview. Really needed to get out of a crappy cubicle job but the new company wanted to do multiple interviews at their corporate office which was a two hour drive away. My old company said that the next time I call in "sick" I better have a doctor's note, which I gladly provided. Should have seen the smoke coming out of my boss's ears.

Now I'm lucky, work from home and my boss lives two time zones away. With a smart phone I can sneak out for a long lunch to hit the trails.

What's the old joke: I ran out of sick days, so I called in dead.

I have definitely called in sick to go hiking, probably at least once a year. I have put in for personal leave to go backpacking (although this was not strictly disallowed.) I have quit a job to go river running.

One of my former coworkers called out to go hiking with me once...this person's excuse was "grandma got out of her old folk's home, I've been recruited to find her" I was proud of 'em for that one!

I'm often confused by other terms for "calling in sick." I was working somewhere where they used the term "calling off." I had no idea what they meant. I asked, "What do you mean by calling off?" The woman replied, in a huffy tone of voice, "You know, it's when you call off!" Gee, thanks for the clarification!

Now, Hippy, you are "calling out." It is just so confusing. That's why I don't want to work. Too much trouble learning all this stuff.

I like having an understanding employer. This is pretty much what my standard request (eh, proclamation?) goes like: "Hey, I got everything critical done and it's raining, so I'm leaving to go play. I'll check email later to make sure nothing important happened."

Plus, karma has a tendency to come back at you, so I find lying to be a bad idea. Because that's when you'll get in that car accident that is featured on the news, or randomly stung by a swarm of bees, or your dumb hiking friend will check you in on facebook not realizing you once felt compelled to add your boss as a friend, etc. Because no matter how poor of a condition your grandmother is in, it's difficult to get a vicious sunburn on your neck in the hospital waiting room. And it's even more difficult to hide it at work the next day.

chumley wrote:Plus, karma has a tendency to come back at you, so I find lying to be a bad idea. Because that's when you'll get in that car accident that is featured on the news, or randomly stung by a swarm of bees, or your dumb hiking friend will check you in on facebook not realizing you once felt compelled to add your boss as a friend, etc. Because no matter how poor of a condition your grandmother is in, it's difficult to get a vicious sunburn on your neck in the hospital waiting room. And it's even more difficult to hide it at work the next day.

Had a friend get fired from his job in Chicago because he figured out how to do his route in 4 hours instead of 8 hours whenever the Cubs were playing. His boss kept a TV in the office to keep an eye on the games and saw my friend chasing a foul ball. Said he had a fun conversation with his boss when he showed up at 5:00 to drop off his delivery vehicle.

SpiderLegs wrote:whenever the Cubs were playing. His boss kept a TV in the office to keep an eye on the games and saw my friend chasing a foul ball.

I think I saw that in a movie once. ;)

Hey batter, batter, batter, suuhwiiiiiiing batter...

Sure its a fairly common thing in Chicago. This happened to him before the movie came out.

Being self-employed, all I have to do is get on the good side of my boss.
Which explains why I cook for her 7 nights a week.

chumley wrote: your dumb hiking friend will check you in on facebook not realizing you once felt compelled to add your boss as a friend

you're funny.

I suppose lying could be a bad thing, and with my klutzy tendancies I'm bound to wind up on the evening news while being rescued from a slot canyon deep in the wilderness somewhere when I SHOULD be at home nursing a fever which everyone assumes to be a hangover. But it hasn't happened yet, I seem to be pretty lucky. With my next job I won't be calling out at all because I can just wait until I clock out to get lost in a canyon.

coworker called out yesterday his excuse "My car broke down in tucson" he emailed me photos this morning of his "adventures at the mogollon yesterday" Hmmm...

I used to hate that. I used to get terrible migraines, and it was at a time of my life when I probably drank no more than about one glass of wine per year at Christmas, if that. And when I found out people thought I was drinking it really, really made me feel very angry, and very hateful toward them. I really did suffer horribly from migraines during my 30's and 40's. The wonder drug, Imitrex, saved my sanity!

I now realize that the world is chock-full of small-minded people who will make these kinds of ugly assumptions about you because they do not have the capacity to actually get to know you as a human being.

Nope, I'm lucky. It does the trick just to say, "It's going to be really nice out and I've finished everything important. Think I'll go hiking tomorrow."
Then, my supervisor usually says, "Where are you going?" or "Sounds fun" or "I'm in!"