13 Real Believable Excuses for Missing Work

Have you ever woke up on Monday morning thinking of some real believable excuses for missing work? If you did, and if you need some more good excuses to miss work in advance, or, on the other hand, excuses for missing work in the last minute, you’ve come to the right place.

To have a good excuse, you need to have a good backup. So, remember, if you are mentioning a specific person, remember what you said about him/her. If you had a house accident, don’t get surprised if you get asked did you get new rugs after that disastrous flood you had. You need to be a good liar. But anyway, those are usually innocent lies.

Second most important thing is some kind of proof. Like, photo for example, if you are having an accident, or medical excuse note if you state to be sick. But, since these excuses would usually be emergencies, it’s up to your boss to believe them or not. Now, if you are in a hurry and in need of excuses to get out of work in the last minute, we also have some recommendations on 14 Good Excuses to Miss Work on Short Notice.

In order to see what real believable excuses for missing work sound like, we have tried to get some tested data. So, on BBC and Telegraph, for example, we could see some statistical and interesting researches on this matter. And of course, since there is a difference between good excuses to miss work for a day and some good excuses to miss work for a week we tried to include both. So we have checked for some suggestions on other places as well such as Quora, Workspirited, The Balance Careers and Bro Bible where we also got the insight in which are some bad excuses work missing work that you shouldn’t be trying out (if you do not want to risk losing job).

Now, you would surely want to see some reasons to call out of work besides being sick, but so far these have proven to work the best when in need for some real excuses for missing work. But, anyway, besides these (and yes, we have taken them into account as well), let’s see which other real believable excuses for missing work you can use next time when being lazy.

13. Out of town business

There are some occasions you really cannot miss. Like out of town wedding of a relative or a good friend. Although this would more likely go as an unpaid day off, you might try and just get the day off.

12. Death

Probably most people would not joke about these things. But the sudden death of a relative can use if you desperately want a day off.

11. Broken tire

This might not sound like a real believable excuse for missing work, but if you have ever had a flat tire, take a photo of it so you can use it in occasions like this and make your excuse a real one.

10. Important delivery

You are moving to a new apartment and your refrigerator is arriving at 10 am. Too bad you have to work at that time. Or do you? You might try this one out.

9. Pet illness

You would probably know if you share the love of dogs or cats with your boss. And even if you don’t have a pet, emergency health issue of a pet can be used as a good real believable excuse for missing work.

8. Honest excuse

In the middle of all this inventing something believable, you might actually try to be honest for once. If you don’t feel like going to work for a day, just say it. Productivity is the most important at work, so if you cannot contribute enough that one day, your boss might feel a bit of compassion for you and give you a day off.

7. Medical tests

Once again, health is the most important. So, you sometimes cannot choose the time and date of some medical tests that you need to have done. Well, seems reasonable enough to serve as a real believable excuse for missing work.

6. Child issues

Your child has gotten ill, or needs to be taken to a very important event: piano competition, acting show, casting… Also, babysitter canceled, you choose.

5. Traffic

Traffic can be a real nightmare in big cities. Add rain or snow or other bad weather conditions to that, and voila, you got some real believable excuse for missing work.

4. Law issues

You’ve got an appointment with your lawyer, or have been summoned as an eyewitness or even as the accused (drunk driving, speed limit…). Going against the law is the crime, right? That’s why these can be used as real believable excuses for missing work.

3. Accidents in-house

Flood, fire, broken pipes, microwave exploding… You chose. House accidents do occur and are unpredictable, hence can serve as good real believable excuses for missing work.

2. Family emergencies

Someone in your family got unexpectedly ill, hurt, or in labor, and needs to be taken to a hospital. Sounds legit.

1. Health Issues

It might sound a bit like a cliché and a usual thing, but health issues are probably the best real believable excuses for missing work. Why? Well, simply, because health is not a joking issue (really now?). So you probably won’t get too suspicious if you try some really good health problem with a good background. For that you might need some preparations, like, copying your doctor’s note template.