- I am sick
- I have a personal emergency
- Due to some unavoidable reasons...
- My kid is not well
- I am down with fever
...And the list goes on!! These are some of the most common reasons given when you want to take a day off from. In most cases it is true but there are those instances when you just don't feel like working. But because that is not considered a "valid" reason, we end up coming up with this or that excuse.
I remember one of my colleagues in my previous organization who told the HR that he didnt attend a particular mandatory event because he was bored :) And the result as you might have guessed was a couple of escalations and email chains circulated.
As human beings it is natural that there can be days we may not be in the best moods to work. Working on such days does not help any of us. It turns out to be more like present physically with possibly not being much productive. You can't get much out of an employee who is not in a mood to work. Instead it would add on to more unproductive days, whereas a day off would mean being active and focused throughout the other days.
Building such an atmosphere where your subordinates aren't hesitant to share the real reason of absence creates a big sense of trust and consequently reduces the number of ad-hoc days of absence. Indirectly it results in better planning and targeting of work. Hopefully, the industry establishes a culture soon where in you can rejuvenate, take an off because you are not in a working mode or want to hang out with friends/family. And you are no longer falling sick!!
