A friend of mine stumbled across this truth recently, when he woke up late after one too many drinks with a client. His solution to avoid going in late to the office? Call in sick. It was a Friday and he didn’t want to turn up bleary-eyed.
Little did he expect the resulting outpouring of concern from his firm.
Now, this chap is a loans banker at a relatively small Taiwanese bank in Hong Kong. Given how small the industry is, him calling in a sickie led to rumours that he was interviewing for new jobs on his ‘sick day’.
As he runs the firm's Hong Kong operation, there was a definite fear among his bosses of losing him.
The first call came from his manager, who asked: “Are you okay? What’s wrong? Should I send someone round to check on you?”
After a few white lies, he had a slight feeling of guilt but no greater problems.
But then came a call from the CEO. On a Saturday. If that doesn’t throw you off balance, then nothing will. When similar questions came from his head honcho, the banker knew something was up — even his better half wouldn’t ring twice in two days to check on him if he is ill.
A quick call to one of his team members set him straight. He quashed the rumour instantly, confirming he wasn’t looking to leave.
His tale did bring back plenty of memories for me, however — memories of never getting any calls from my boss or CEO when I called in sick. Goes to show how valued I really was.