When my depression gets bad I call in as sick, because struggling with mental illness is still so taboo and I do not want my employers to know about it.
I’ve probably done this a handful of times over my lifetime, due to general social anxiety. Some days, I just can’t do people. It’s never made me feel like I was taking advantage, because I’m usually the first person to jump and offer extra time during a crisis. I’m much happier doing a job when my presence is needed, when there’s a high-pressure situation.
I never had to do this for school, because I was such an overachiever that my parents just let me stay home on the rare occasions when I didn’t want to go in.
Because my brother is an ass and backed out of watching my kid so I could go to a concert AT THE LAST MINUTE, so I faked being sick so I wouldn’t have to have him in my house. I’m still mad at him for that.
From watching soft core porn, on the French channel , all night , on a school night, as a teenager. Also if I couldn’t fight the neighborhood bullies, then I stayed home.
I had one guy reporting to me who fairly often called me (or MY boss) saying he had a cold or had hurt his knee or whatever, and then show up the next day or the day after completely healed. It was a miracle!
But I rarely called him on it even though he knew I had his number, because I also knew he knew I sometimes did the same—usually because I just couldn’t face a day at work.
I’d say the few times I have done that was either because I was tired or for a mental health day too.
I have a problem with not sounding sick when I am sick.
I can be sick as a dog and you really can’t hear it in my voice, short of a head cold, but, I always sound exactly the same, don’t play it up or try to sound extra feeble and I often get, ” You don’t SOUND sick!”
Well..WTF, what can I tell you, I feel like crap. Sorry I don’t sound more pathetic. haha
I broke a nail playing the harp at the annual Let’s show off cuz we’re rich ball & so left myself a memo, “give yourself a day off (self employed) for being a silly plucker”
I don’t remember ever doing that as an adult. When I was a kid going to school, I tried, but my mom was such a good diagnostician I never got away with it. I even did the penny thing under my tongue to raise my temperature and lightly powdered my face with her with her compact in order to look pale. I think I got the idea from a Spanky and Our Gang flick. Didn’t fly.
If I press on the dip in my neck, between the clavicle, it causes me to have the most horrific cough. It worked like a charm!
One time I bit the white tip of a piece of candy corn, showed it to my mom and told her I’d lost a tooth. She was peering in my mouth when I popped the tip in my mouth and ATE IT! Kind of freaked her out a little! And I didn’t get no money.
When I was 7 I had to attended a “summer course” at school. The course wasn’t technically compulsory, just introducing all the lessons of the next term to give pupils a head start. One day at the recess I was playing around with some pupils. At some point I crossed the “no trespassing” area without knowing it. A kid in my class saw it and when the recess was over she threatened to inform the teacher about what I had done. Although I repeatedly told her I did it by accident, she didn’t listen. The next day I felt so dreadful to go back to school that I faked being sick. For some reason I succeeded. I still don’t know if my parents really believed that I was sick or they had already planned to stop taking me to school, given that the course wasn’t compulsory.
But the thing is, the next few days I got sick for real! It wasn’t serious, but contagious enough to keep people away. The disease lasted for the rest of the course. At least I didn’t have to face being brought to the teacher. I don’t know and don’t care what happened to that kid.
I learned my mom got paroled early and kinda lost my shit. I was thinking I had a few more years to finish college so I could financially support her.
I kinda flipped out and drank a lot and stopped going to school and work.
I had the balls to tell Mike (my boss) I got stranded in the woods and after a few weeks I got rescued. He was all “I know that is a lie but I don’t care.”
My professors were not as forgiving. That was a huge mess that took 6 months to clean up.