h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Being mentally unprepared for going to work should really be excuse enough, but as long as it isn't, you might want to consider the local labor laws before you decide to pull a sickie. If you are a Norwegian for instance, you have a maximum of 4 times 3 sick days without a doctors note. This has several implications, but the most imporant is that if you've pulled four sickies and catch a bad cold you will have to go to a doctor and convince him you are too ill to go to work. It also means that if you are sick exactly 3 days in a row, four times a year your employer is going to be watching you like a hawk.

In the undying words of Weird Al:
"... then I'm gonna hack and cough and wheeze, swear I have some strange disease, what's that little twerp gonna say ..." - Callin' in sick

In the TDV days before h2g2 was bought by the BBC, we used to have three Duvet Days a year for those days when you just don't feel like going to work. You used to phone up, say 'I'm having a Duvet Day', and then hang up.

They were a right and not a privelege, you couldn't take them if you had a meeting and you couldn't take them as part of your annual leave.


Ahh those were the days.

You mean the Beeb doesn't do duvet days?!?

Why not have a coup - barricade the door to your offices, put a big sign saying 'The Digital Village' on the door, and announce duvet days for all. I'm sure you'd get defectors from all the other Beeb departments. Eventually the D-G would cave in, and the world would be a better place.

Duvet Days are perfect for small companies, but can you imagine the loss of productivity and abuse of the system if you made it available to 25,000 people?

Yes I can - it would be fantastic!