Although many claim “honest it the best policy,” in many cases the saying comes with an asterisk next to it. For instance, professionals calling out last-minute might consider a phony excuse instead of telling their workplace the real reason why.
Not everyone finds that to be acceptable behavior. TikTok user Gabs (oleana_pm) has some harsh words for her co-workers who try to use what she thinks are dishonest excuses as to why they are calling out last-minute.
She posted about these dishonest excuses in a viral TikTok that’s garnered more than 1.8 million views. Judging from the responses in the comment section, it seems like there are a lot of folks fed up with co-workers calling out last-minute.
@oleana_pm we all know you dont have food poisoning Brit #workbelike #fyp ♬ original sound – jasmyn
In the clip, Gabs blasts her co-workers for using dishonest excuses as a means of calling out of work. “If my co-workers were honest when they asked me to cover their shifts I would be so much more likely to do it if they were like, look I’m gonna get blackout drunk and f*ck my ex tonight can you please take my morning shift? Done. But I don’t give a f*ck about your food poisoning Brittany. Figure it out,” she says.
One commenter said that they too would cover a co-worker’s shift if it meant that they had a shot of potentially hanging out with someone in a romantic capacity. “my old coworker would send me screenshots of her tinder matchs bio and pics and if they seemed decent I’d cover her shift lmao,” they wrote.
Another person said that they too would cover, but they’d need some hot gossip and post-play breakdowns in return. “Done, but I also need to hear every single messy detail,” the user wrote.
For others, it was all about not missing out on different types of experiences. “when my coworker told me someone gave her a ticket to beyoncé i covered her shift so fasttt,” another user wrote.
“Literally had a coworker ask me to cover so she could her nails done and I was like hell yeah send me pics,” a user said.
One common trend in the comments section is that many users felt they could also tell when their co-workers were lying to them. “see because I thought about this every time they lied through their teeth to me about why they need to coverage,” one person quipped.
Apparently, the top last-minute excuse employees use in order to miss a shift is that they’re sick. Potential reasons food poisoning is such a common excuse is that this illness can come without warning, and its symptoms can start to exhibit quite quickly. The Centers for Disease Control notes that symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea can occur as soon as 30 minutes after eating tainted food.
So if you’ve got a 9am shift you don’t want to make at work and it’s 7pm, why not text your work and say you had a bad shrimp taco and now it feels like someone’s playing Modern Warfare inside of your lower intestine? The trouble is that you’re dealing with other co-workers who’ve probably used similar excuses themselves to get out of work. Gabs thinks it’s just better tell the employee you’re trying to get to cover your shift that your guts are getting rearranged in a different way, instead.
Employees using dishonest excuses to miss a shift is nothing new. Last year, one fast food worker called out her colleague for saying they were sick, but later showing up in the drive-thru. And a TikTok user who said she really did have food poisoning shared texts from her boss implying she was faking it.
The Daily Dot reached out to Gabs via TikTok comment for further information.
