Sometimes you just need a work from home day to blitz through a project, unwind from the hustle and bustle of the office, or spend time with your cat!
Whatever your reason, below are the best excuses to work from home to make sure you get your time away from the office approved.
1) Commute issues
Whether it’s car issues, train, puncture on your bike’s tire, this one is a surefire way to get you the work from home day you’re after.
Just make sure your boss doesn’t have the same commute as you or if you blame traffic you might want to be sure they’re not the type of person to check the traffic report!
2) Doctor’s appointment
This is as good an excuse to work from home as any. You could run the risk of your boss asking you to come into the office before/after depending on the time.
If you’re actually booking an appointment, or even if you’re not, blocking out your calendar around the middle of the day might be the best way to guarantee a full day at home!
3) Household emergency
This one’s a great last minute excuse to work from home. You could have a leak or the electric might be out. There’s a few options to work with here.
You might want to prepare for a couple of potential follow up questions, but for the most part this is a solid excuse.
4) Family emergency
In a similar vein to the household emergency, but maybe a bit more viable for getting the immediate ‘yes’ you’re looking for.
Not a great one for those who don’t like tempting fate. Could come with follow up questions later down the road, ‘How is your aunt Dorris after her fall? Be prepared.
5) Minor Injury
A broken toe or a strained hamstring from a jog you went on last night is pretty plausible for a couple of days working from home. If you still intend to work, those are the best options. A sprained wrist or burning your hand on the frying pan is probably going to get you a day signed off due to the impact it would have on your ability to type.
6) Increased productivity
Working on a big project and need no distractions to do your best work in a timely manner? This one has a lot of potential if you are in fact working hard on something that your boss is aware of. Especially effective if you work in an office that’s a hive of social activity.
7) Illness
This one’s a classic. And rightly so. Most bosses expect a few employees to be inflicted bybackache/migraine/chesty cough [insert generic mild health reason here]. It actually might score you some brownie points. ‘Yea, it’s really bad, but I’m going to power through and log on.’
This one’s always effective, but might get a bit tedious if you overuse it.
8) Childcare
The downside is you might have to have a prearranged agreement around childcare so you’ll need to work around that. Nursery is closed for the day for whatever reason could cut it. Not got kids, say out of nowhere you’ve been asked to look after someone else’s.
9) Mental health day
I know I’ve needed a few of these recently at work. Any decent boss/company will accommodate this. Let’s be honest most employees probably do actually need one at some point. Heck, it might even be the reason you’re reading this post in the first place.
10) Avoid office illness
This one sounds a bit iffy, but has its merits. There should be some kind of cold going around the office to give it validity. The upside is that if another team member is unwell your boss won’t want you all dropping like flies.
Excuses to work from home for a month
If you’re looking for a bit more longevity to your work from home period, here’s a few more ideas that could come in handy.
Home renovations
This is actually a pretty good excuse. Say you’re having an extension built. Someone needs to let the builders in and out on a daily basis, supervise their work and make sure your house doesn’t collapse in the process. Gives you some flexibility on timeframe too.
Long-term injury
An upgrade from the hamstring sprain mentioned earlier to a broken foot is a surefire way to get you a number of weeks off. Just remember to come prepared with your backstory of how it happened.
Summary
Good luck with your boss!
If you’re looking to get a day off of work, check out these bulletproof excuses to get out of work for some inspiration.
James Waite
Founder of Remoteopia, James has worked in remote roles for 6 years. After a stint in recruitment, he now works as a director of website strategy in tech.
