You Better Have A Pretty Good Excuse For Not Showing Up For Work

With running a small family-owned business, as an employee you better have a pretty good excuse for not showing up for work.

Things like…

• I don’t feel like it
• I want the day off
• my sister needs a ride into town
• my cell phone isn’t working
• I’m sick (when you know from their Facebook posting that they spent the night at the bar and there are pictures to prove it

… just don’t cut the mustard.

When you are running a small business, every person counts. If one isn’t there, the others have to pick up the slack.

Usually, that’s Rob (the owner) and it’s hard to maintain the BIG picture of the company when you are working down in the trenches.

We’ve even had a person start and worked for a week. Get his paycheck and then just disappeared. Only to show up a week and a half later (money ran out) to say he was ready for work and could he have his job back.

I don’t think so!!

Did you know that there are even whole web pages devoted to good and bad excuses for not coming to work? No need to even think up a good excuse anymore as someone else has already done it for you.

I’m beginning to wonder, what happened to the good old work ethic.

Where people showed up for their jobs because it was their job and that is how they paid the bills, fed their family and took pride in what they did.

In looking up the definition of work ethic it has been separated into categories with each one having a different meaning.

Things like honesty, integrity, dependable… and the list goes on. If you want to read about it, click here.

Now… we aren’t looking for the world in an employee, but it’s nice when you get one that is willing to show up on time, willing to do what it takes to get the job done, takes pride in their work and does it without complaint.

Those are the people that get a raise and if they have an excuse for not showing up at work, it’s usually a good one. They know that we count on them daily.

Reasons like…

• My car broke down and I might be a few minutes late but I’ve called a taxi and they should be here any minute to pick me up and bring me to work
• I can’t make it this morning as I’ve spent the night at the hospital with (______) and I need a couple of hours sleep before I can drive. Will be in before noon
• My wife is having a baby
• etc…

These are pretty good reasons for not being at work as we know life happens to people, but truth and honesty goes a long way.

People forget that the boss had done their job before and knows if they just don’t want to come in because it’s going to be a hard day at work, or if it is really and truly a reason, not an excuse.

So where did all this come from you might ask as it’s a bit off the subject of what I normally write about?

It all started because of the anniversary of Rob’s mom’s passing.

To honour this event, I found “The Corries” on YouTube.

The Corries are made up of two Scottish fellows who sing and it was Rita’s favourite music of all times. She being Scottish and all. If you put on a tape of The Corries, she would smile and come alive with the music.

So, after going through a few songs that she liked I found one that I had never heard before. It was called “The Bricklayer’s Song”.

The song cracked me up and it made me think of all the above excuses that people have had over the years for just not showing up for work.

I’m threatening to make any new employee listen to the song so they know what level of commitment that is expected of them. 🙂

Enjoy the music, words and song and I hope it makes you laugh as well.