Now that summer vacation season is just a memory, and winter cold-and-flu season is looming, it's a good time to contemplate people's reasons for calling in to say that they are just not planning to show up.
夏天假期已经悄悄过去,寒冷难耐、流感横行的冬天即将来临。盘点人们形形色色的请假理由,现在正是时候。
Of course, no sane manager expects 100% attendance from everybody all the time. Life doesn't work that way. Have I ever told you about the time I tripped over my dog and had to go to the emergency room to get 17 stitches? No? Well, of course not. Who wants to admit to being unable to navigate a room without tripping over a dog?
当然,但凡理智的老板都不会期望所有员工的出勤率都保持在100%。这是不现实的。我有没有说过我曾经被狗绊了一跤,结果去急诊室缝了17针?这样的糗事我当然不会声张了,谁愿意主动承认在自己家里还会被狗绊倒摔一跤呢?
And while we're on this thread, here's another thing: Who doesn't take a mental-health day every once in a while? Answer (you know it): A really scary person you would not want to be around. Or work for.
既然说到这个问题,还有一件事:谁敢说自己不会每隔一段时间就会有一天精神恍惚?如果真有这样的人,那他肯定非常恐怖,不会有人愿意与他打交道。更别提一起共事了。
We get it. Really. But there are limits.
所以,对于请假我们都非常理解。但凡事总有限度。
Or are there? Job site CareerBuilder recently asked 2,696 human resources managers and 4,384 full-time employees for the "most unusual" reasons for absence that they had heard, seen, or perpetrated. The researchers got some intriguing answers. Here are a few:
但事实果真如此吗?最近,求职网站凯业必达(CareerBuilder)对2,696名人力资源经理和4,384名全球员工进行了调查,征询他们听说的、见过的或者自己用过的“最不同凡响”的缺勤理由。调查人员得到了一些有趣的答案。比如:
The employee:
• Fell out of bed and broke his nose
• Caught a cold from a puppy
• Got sick from eating too much at a party
• Had to go to the hospital after accidentally drinking antifreeze
• Hurt his back chasing a beaver
• Got his toe caught in a vent cover
• Developed a headache from attending too many garage sales
员工:
• 从床上掉下来,摔破了鼻子
• 感染了“狗流感”
• 参加派对吃得太多,吃坏了肚子
• 不小心喝了防冻液,不得不去医院就医
• 捉海狸的时候伤到了背部
• 脚趾头被排气孔给卡住了
• 疯狂赶场参加旧货交易,结果导致头痛
There is a special category for absentees that were victims of peculiar accidents:
• Bats got into the employee's hair.
• A refrigerator fell on the employee.
• A bucket filled with water crashed through the ceiling of a bowling alley and hit the employee on the head.
• A deer bit the employee while he was hunting.
• While the employee's hamster was giving birth, she was so sickened by the process that she (the employee, not the hamster) passed out.
而有一些缺勤者给出的理由更是匪夷所思:
• 蝙蝠钻进了头发
• 冰箱倒了,砸在身上
• 一只装满水的水桶砸破保龄球馆的屋顶,恰好又砸在自己的头上
• 打猎时被一只鹿咬伤了
• 宠物仓鼠要产崽,整个过程让人恶心不已,于是,她(员工本人,而不是仓鼠)晕了过去。
If there were a prize, it would have to go to a chef who, in his lucrative job as second-in-command in the kitchen of a prestigious high-volume restaurant, "had pre-existing allergies he chose not to disclose to us," said the person who hired him.
当然,如果对请假理由进行评奖的话,大奖非一位大厨莫属。他在一家著名的餐厅担任副厨师长,这家餐厅生意火爆,而且给他的待遇也十分丰厚。他的老板说:“他称自己之前就有过敏症,只不过一直没有跟我们透露。”
The fellow was allergic, it turned out, to so many different comestibles that, after all his paid sick days and vacation were used up, he "ultimately was moved to a role where he didn't touch food."
原来这位大厨对许多食物过敏,于是在用完了所有带薪病假和假期之后,他“终于找了一份不需要跟食物打交道的工作。”
Okay. Plenty of chefs don't touch food (they conceptualize: their minions mince the shallots and deglaze the saucepans), but I still have one niggling question: Who accidentally drinks antifreeze? Could it have been the deer hunter who let the deer get close enough to bite him?
好吧。许多厨师都不碰食物(这是后厨的规矩 :由下属负责切洋葱和清洗炒锅之类的杂活)。但我还是不明白:谁会不小心喝防冻液呢?会不会是那个猎鹿人一直等着那只鹿走过来咬他?
Now, that is a story I would like to hear.
我倒想听听他们的解释。