A: Bad weather

CareerBuilder.com surveyed workers and human resources professionals to find the weirdest excuses for playing hooky. First of all, 28 percent of workers called in “sick” in 2013 when they weren’t, which is actually down quite a bit from 2012 when 32 percent played hooky.

So, why do we play hooky?

• 33 percent just didn’t feel like going to work.
• 29 percent claimed they wanted to relax for a day.
• 21 percent had a doctor’s appointment.
• 19 percent wanted to sleep in.
• 11 blamed bad weather.

Although you could just say, “I’m sick” and leave it at that, some employees felt that this lie wasn’t effective enough. So they got creative. One might even say they got a bit too creative.

The worst real excuses given for missing work, according to CareerBuilder.com:

1. I just put a casserole in the oven.
2. My plastic surgery needs some tweaking to get it just right.
3. My feet and legs fell asleep when I was sitting in the bathroom, and when I stood up, I broke my ankle.
4. I was gambling at the casino all weekend and still have money left. I need to stay to win it back.
5. I’m stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store.
6. I got lucky last night and don’t know where I am this morning.
7. I put my uniform in the microwave to dry and it caught fire.
8. I accidentally got on a plane.
9. I woke up in a good mood and don’t want to ruin it.