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Excuses for not coming for interview.

klemchuk

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 30, 2004
Location
Surrey, B. C.
We are looking to hire entry level staff. One person has been bugging us for an interview for weeks and we finally said yes,
only to be told he couldn't come because his best friend had just committed suicide.
OK next. Call him for interview but he can't come because he has just sprained his ankle.
My opinion is the Government is making it too easy to not work!
I'd be interested to hear more excuses.
 
Why even make the excuse, it seems like almost as much trouble as actually working. In the world of education I get all kind of excuses. Today's was "I didn't get my homework done because my dog was having puppies" Student had 2 plus days to get the work done, must be a lot of puppies.
 
We are looking to hire entry level staff. One person has been bugging us for an interview for weeks and we finally said yes,
only to be told he couldn't come because his best friend had just committed suicide.
OK next. Call him for interview but he can't come because he has just sprained his ankle.
My opinion is the Government is making it too easy to not work!
I'd be interested to hear more excuses.

Grasshopper and the Ant.....I'm sure your not giving the loser another chance eh ?

"Oopsie for you, we just filled that job, He showed up for the interview....early"
 
.... Today's was "I didn't get my homework done because my dog was having puppies" .

I once did the classic "My dog ate it" on a report due.
Knew how far this would fly so I brought with me the torn up 20 pages some of it still readable. The teacher laughed.

Never had a excuse on a interview and sprained ankle seems so weak. Have had all sorts of things on why I can't come to work.
One mom had died. So sorry to hear, where is the funeral and he gives the name of the church.
Immediate thing we would do here is send a big wreath from the company so we contact the church. They tell us that they have no member by this name and no knowledge.
This person a habitual liar but this the last straw.

Evidently death in the family is a big one used. When I worked for a very large union shop there was a whole pile of documentation needed to prove it.

In this job was this one. "My older brother was shot a few days ago" (this true I knew)
"My younger bother has taken a gun and gone looking, I need to go find him and bring him back". "I need a vacation day".
Company rule here is vacation days need to be requested in writing 48 hours in advance and must be signed off.
What to do? Fake the paperwork or say no? Get caught faking the paper and other supervisors have been fired for this, no slack given here from upstairs.
Bob
 
I can see the suicide one if it's true. But I could see how requesting a funeral notice or such would turn someone off to the job offer as well...
 
Evidently death in the family is a big one used. When I worked for a very large union shop there was a whole pile of documentation needed to prove it.

How many people abuse or try to abuse, "...a death in the family"?
You wouldn't want that person as an employee anyway.
Bring in a copy of the death certificate and a newspaper Obit. to use you Bereavement benefits. It only applies to immediate family, not parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces,etc. etc.
F.U., who wants to work for an employer like that?
 
I've had all of these said to my face, (and more)

1 Couldn't / can't be arsed.

2 Was drunk / hungover.

3 Was in Police cells.

4 My mate say's you're a c**t.

5 Went to football instead.


and so on and so on.
 
If someone told me they couldn't come for an interview because their best friend had just committed suicide, he'd better mean he was sitting next to him and still had blood all over him and has to stay to talk to the cops. Anything less, there's no reason he can't go to an interview.
 
if someone told me they couldn't come for an interview because their best friend had just committed suicide, he'd better mean he was sitting next to him and still had blood all over him and has to stay to talk to the cops. Anything less, there's no reason he can't go to an interview.

what ! The muzzle blast is still making my ears ring.....
 
If someone told me they couldn't come for an interview because their best friend had just committed suicide, he'd better mean he was sitting next to him and still had blood all over him and has to stay to talk to the cops. Anything less, there's no reason he can't go to an interview.

question....do you

a) have a dark sense of humor from dealing with tragedy
b) never really had anything tragic happen in your life
c) simply lack empathy for those who have

i mean, one can cordially express sorrow for someones circumstances...and having had a best friend commit suicide the day before, if properly communicated, is a pretty legitimate reason for not wanting to be interviewed, at most levels of employment. i can see an employer rightfully using it as an excuse not to hire someone just to avoid the possibility of a train wreck...but it is something that definitely leaves a mark on ones psyche for a while.
 
question....do you

a) have a dark sense of humor from dealing with tragedy
b) never really had anything tragic happen in your life
c) simply lack empathy for those who have

i mean, one can cordially express sorrow for someones circumstances...and having had a best friend commit suicide the day before, if properly communicated, is a pretty legitimate reason for not wanting to be interviewed, at most levels of employment. i can see an employer rightfully using it as an excuse not to hire someone just to avoid the possibility of a train wreck...but it is something that definitely leaves a mark on ones psyche for a while.

Holy shit, yes YES YES!

I can't believe that is even a reason to question. Sure, there are certainly slimeballs that might make that up, but I wouldn't question it to someone unknown to me. :nutter:

I don't think I have personally known anyone that commited suicide, but that would fuck me up if they were close to me. I just recently missed almost 2 whole days of work for having my dog put to sleep. If my work (different scenario I know as I have been there about 2 years) had questioned me I probably would have lost my shit and picked up my tools after hours and told them to pound sand!!
 
On the flip side. There was an older toolmaker when I was in the toolroom, who was the last person to go through the apprenticeship program there before they ditched it. He said he'd applied and had a date for an interview in an afternoon, so on the appointed day he took half a day off his current job, went home, showered, dressed up and appeared for the interview. Personnel said, "So sorry, but the manager had to go out this afternoon to get cake and ice cream for his son's birthday party this evening. Could you possibly come back next week?"

The guy said that he could, so the following week took another half a day, got the interview, and got the apprenticeship. But it always griped him that they'd wasted his time and didn't even have the courtesy to call him ahead and reschedule. So he's now worked for the company for probably 30 years and told me that whenever he's wasting time somewhere, he feels like he's getting his own back. Now who do you think was coming out ahead on that? I'm sure he wasted WAY more time over those years than the few hours the company screwed him out of. Just saying, there are fuckups on both sides.

I'd never trivialize suicide, even if I couldn't verify someone's story. I had a friend with medical problems and while I was keeping him company in the hospital he began talking about taking his own life. He'd attempted it once before and spent some time in lockup so asked me to promise not to tell on him. Okay. Further, since he didn't have a computer in the room, he wondered if I could research some methods for him. Shit, where do you go from there? I did sneak around to the hospital social workers and ask if they'd just stop by, visit and do an assessment keeping me out of it. I don't think they ever did, I hemmed and hawed about research, but did get him home when he checked himself out AMA. The next day he did successfully hang himself using the car hoist in the shop. I really hated it, but understood too what he was facing. He'd just had an abdominal operation he wasn't recovering well from. He needed another on his esophagus and one on his back and he'd had knee problems from childhood. At retirement age he couldn't do any of the stuff he'd wanted to later in life. I did chicken out and asked another of his friends to maybe check on him. If I'd checked and called the police they'd probably have questions and I'm not that good a liar.
 
The oddest excuse I've been given was "My pet octopus is sick, and I need to stay home to take care of it."

Funny, but I had a friend with a saltwater tank, lots of odd "fish" in there. Although not sure you "take care of it"?? He also had an African grey parrot, Manny. That bird was meeaannn!!
 
Decades ago, after begging my way into a job at a machine shop, the Sunday night before my first day the female dog went into labor, I was up all night helping and making sure the pups were ok. 7:30 am rolled around and I was in no shape for work, and there were still pups on the way, called in expecting the worst, he was understanding and said be here tomorrow, or don't bother. I showed up early the next morning, with a pic of the new pups, we ended up getting along great:)
 
It's important to recognize the 'suicide' argument is almost for sure bullshit.

If it happened to me, I'd tell the employer about it and politely ask if I could come in in 5 days. Or 7 days, But no longer than 7 days. When I showed up for the interview, I'd plop some sort of proof that it had actually happened on their desk to erase any doubt about the matter. Then, I'd get on with the interview making sure I was not making a sympathy play.

But we all know that never happens... because, as above, the suicide is almost always an excuse.

A job interview is an hour or two at the most. If I were interviewing someone who couldn't hold their shit together for that long in the face of adversity, I'd most likely not hire them.

It's far better to show up for an interview in a fucked-up state of mind than it is to not show up at all. It's a really poor start to a relationship when Day One is a personal crisis. As an employee, my main priority is to have a job and to work. Not clutter up my employment with a bunch of personal shit. Employers don't care- nor should they - that my dog died and I have a pimple on my penis.
 
Flip the situation around.

What if your employer said he couldn't pay you for a week because his friend killed himself? Everyone still on board with the empathy thing?
 








 
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