--- title: Excuses for Skipping Work: Careerbuilder Survey description: CareerBuilder survey reveals the most outrageous excuses employees make for skipping work canonical: https://time.com/3535340/careerbuilder-excuses-skip-work/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-23T22:19:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:14:01.684Z og:title: 10 Terrible Excuses People Actually Used to Skip Work og:description: Don't we all wish we could say "woke up in a good mood and didn't want to ruin it"? og:url: https://time.com/3535340/careerbuilder-excuses-skip-work/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Terrible Excuses People Actually Used to Skip Work twitter:description: Don't we all wish we could say "woke up in a good mood and didn't want to ruin it"? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 10 Terrible Excuses People Actually Used to Skip Work  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 23, 2014 10:19 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 23, 2014 10:19 PM UTC A new national survey by [CareerBuilder.com](http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?sd=10%2F23%2F2014&id=pr848&ed=12%2F31%2F2014) and Harris Poll reveals the most suspicious excuses for blowing off work. They are: 1. Employee just put a casserole in the oven. 2. Employee’s plastic surgery for enhancement purposes needed some “tweaking” to get it just right. 3. Employee was sitting in the bathroom and her feet and legs fell asleep. When she stood, up she fell and broke her ankle. 4. Employee had been at the casino all weekend and still had money left to play with on Monday morning. 5. Employee woke up in a good mood and didn’t want to ruin it. 6. Employee had a “lucky night” and didn’t know where he was. 7. Employee got stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store and couldn’t get out. 8. Employee had a gall stone they wanted to heal holistically. 9. Employee caught their uniform on fire by putting it in the microwave to dry. 10. Employee accidentally got on a plane. The poll, conducted online between ­­Aug. 11 to Sept. 5, 2014, surveyed 3,103 workers and 2,203 hiring managers and human resource professionals. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3535340/careerbuilder-excuses-skip-work/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3535340/careerbuilder-excuses-skip-work/"},"headline":"10 Terrible Excuses People Actually Used to Skip Work","datePublished":"2014-10-23T22:19:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:14:01.684Z","description":"Don't we all wish we could say \"woke up in a good mood and didn't want to ruin it\"?","url":"https://time.com/3535340/careerbuilder-excuses-skip-work/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3535340/careerbuilder-excuses-skip-work/","name":"10 Terrible Excuses People Actually Used to Skip Work"}}]}] ```