Ever Have An "UNWANTED" Day Off Work?
By singlemommy
@singlemommy (2955)
United States
March 3, 2009 10:49pm CST
Yes, you read that right! An UNWANTED day off work. I know, I know, everyone enjoys a day off work, but lets say that you have every intentions of working and something happens and you have to miss work. You really needed to go because you need the money and well, you need your job, but there is nothing you can do about it.
Tomorrow will be one of these days for me. I received a phone call from my babysitter tonight saying that her furnace went out and she can't babysit children in the cold so she isn't going to be able to babysit tomorrow. I can't blame her, things happen sometimes, so I totally understand. I have called everyone that I can think of that I thought could possibly babysit for me tomorrow so I could go ahead and go into work, but no one is available tomorrow, so it looks like I'm going to have to call in tomorrow. I really don't want to, but I don't have a choice in the matter.
So, have you ever had one of those days where you needed to work, but something happened and you couldn't?
8 people like this
29 responses
@lilybug (21107)
• United States
4 Mar 09
I have had a few of those before. Sometimes it was a babysitter, sometimes it was a sick kid. Another few times it was because of car issues. Sorry to hear you are going to have to take a much unwanted day off of work tomorrow. I hope the babysitter gets her furnace fixed and you get to go to work on Thursday.
3 people like this
@singlemommy (2955)
• United States
4 Mar 09
Me too! I can't afford to miss too much work and my employer won't care much for it either, but sometimes there just isn't anything you can do to prevent things from happening.
2 people like this
@daliaj (5674)
• India
4 Mar 09
Yes, I had an unwanted day off work once. I took off only because I was lazy and wanted to sleep more. So, I acted in phone to my supervisor as if I was suffering from Asthma.To my bad luck, the electricity went off after some time and I was at home for around 6 hours without electricy. I couldn't sleep or watch TV and it was a horrible time.
3 people like this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
4 Mar 09
Today was one of those days for me. I had a scheduled doctors appointment first thing for a consultation. They wanted me to get a biopsy and as it turned out there was an openning this afternoon. So I ended up taking the whole day off to get this done instead of half a day today and half a day next week. It's really bad timing for me at work because we're in the heat of tax season, but I had to do it.
1 person likes this
@CRSunrise (2981)
• United States
5 Mar 09
I had an unwanted day off this week. It wasn't because I had to call in or anything. It was because I was scheduled for only four days this week. We really need the money right now, and when I'm only scheduled the four days, it makes it that much more difficult to make the money we need to pay what we need to.
@ddhawkins63 (682)
• United States
5 Mar 09
I have also had days like that. I guess it happens to everyone. When you have kids it's inevitable I think. My kids are grown now but my father is very ill and I missed a lot of days because he was hospitalized etc. It really put a hit on my paycheck when I ran out of Paid Time Off. I had to just suck it up and stretch the dollars. I know that's difficult to do sometimes but it's just the way life is.
1 person likes this
@golddrizzle71 (113)
• United States
4 Mar 09
Plently of times. I was on vacation (from Cedar Point) and when I was driving back to Pittsburgh, when my mom got deathly sick. Running a high-grade fever, throwing up...etc. I had to pull over at a hotel for the night. There was no way that I could of speed home when my mom wasn't that well. That night I tried to get a hold of my boss through a coworker. He was being nosy and asking me "Why I needed her number?". I'm sorry, but it was none of his business at the time. I just went to bed and the next day, I got up early to call my boss and explained what happened. She was very understanding and told me to have a safe trip home. I offered to come in the next day (since I had July 22 or 29 off). My boss said I didn't need too. Oh well. At least, I made it home safe.
1 person likes this
@tammytwo (4298)
• United States
4 Mar 09
I had one of those days about four years ago. I had just started a seasonal position and was heading to work on an icy road when I had an accident. The worst part of it was we had just bought the vehicle brand new about three months before the wreck. I wasn't going very fast but slid off into a ditch and caused more than $5000 in damage to the front of the vehicle. I was so mad at myself and the fact that not only was I going to have to pay my insurance deductible but I was also missing a day of work and would lose that pay as well.
1 person likes this
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
4 Mar 09
I have, and in these days, you don't want to miss more than you need to. Hopefully you think of someone else. Maybe you could ask one of your childs friends moms.
1 person likes this
@mummyofthree (2715)
•
4 Mar 09
Oh yes. Plenty of times I have had to miss things. I'm a stay at home mum but I do bits and pieces to make extra cash and sometimes if the kids are ill it puts things on hold.
It can't be helped so make the most of your day off.
1 person likes this
@tamarafireheart (15384)
•
4 Mar 09
Hi singlemommy,
It must be frustrating when you can't get to work when you want to, that happened to me once, I need to get theis job out and I made my way to work early but it so happened that we had a lot of snow and I got stuck as there were no transport that morning and had to come back home, i was so annoyed.
Tamara
1 person likes this
@beamon1021 (46)
• United States
4 Mar 09
Yes I have. About 3 weeks ago my husband was bring me to work and just as I was getting out of the car my 2 year old started vomiting all over the car! It was awful! So I had to take her out and clean her up and at this point I too needed another shower so there was no way i could actually go to work even though i was already there and dressed. To top it off I was scheduled not to work that friday to go on a shopping trip with my mom but had to cancel due to the surprised day off!
Motherhood is great! lol
1 person likes this
@moondancer (7433)
• United States
4 Mar 09
Did you offer for her to come to your house to kee them only going back to her house when the guy shows up to fix the furnice.
That's the only ting I can think of.
Too bad your company doesn't have da care at work. Maybe it can be suggested. People wouldn't miss as much work if afforsable day care was offered there.
1 person likes this
@derek_a (10874)
•
4 Mar 09
I am self-employed so I tend to have an odd unwanted day off work. The problem is when you are self-employed and work alone, is that if you don't work, you don't get paid. But, this is how I have always been since I first left school, and the good days more than make up for the bad days. 
. Derek
. Derek1 person likes this
@aidenofthetower (1814)
• United States
4 Mar 09
We have never had any unwanted days off because of situations quite like yours. We did have car trouble once and my husband could take the bus to his job, but someone had to take care of getting the car fixed and since I made less money then he did it was me. So I missed a day there. We have also had mandatory days off that we weren't thrilled about. Such as the day after inventory, which are unpaid holidays.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
4 Mar 09
I was blessed to be able to stay home with my children when they were growing up so I never had to call in but I know this happens to many moms. Couldn't she have come to your house and taken the children with her when the furnace man comes?
1 person likes this
@sudalunts (5523)
• United States
4 Mar 09
Yes, I have had unwanted days off from work. Especially, when it was month end and the books needed to be balanced. Bosses, really do not care about your issues, they just want their work done. I had the flu last year and it was time to balance the books for the month, we had time schedules to finish certain things. By being out I missed my deadlines, and my boss seemed to have an attitude towards me ever since. Employers always want to know ahead, they do not take into consider that unforeseen things can happen.
Do you have sick or vacation days you can use?
1 person likes this
@missybear (11391)
• United States
4 Mar 09
I'm lucky I have PTO so when I have to take a day of I use my PTO and get paid for it.
I know what you mean though on my last job they kept giving people extra days of when it was slow.
That hurt come payday.
1 person likes this
