when your water heater broke, you lost your electricity, or you lost your heat? I don't think I ever have. I have taken ice cold showers when the water heater was not working or when the furnace was broken, and have gotten dressed for work using a flashlight and/or candles when the electricity was out. Guess I've learned to "go with the flow" when things like this happen. I know of people who have called off work for the above-mentioned reasons. I dunno, in that situation, I would WANT to go to work. At least I would have hot water, electricity and heat for part of the day, anyway.

I've called to come in late for power outage.

We have an electric garage door opener and the garage door is a BEAST when the power is out. It takes so long to open the door manually. I hate it.

I've taken ice cold showers when the hot water heater goes out and used my car vents to blow dry my hair.

ice cold showers is a luxury where i come from. we have to walk 20 miles to work uphill each day in the snow and 20 miles back home uphill again, in the snow every day, and we have to carry a bag of coal. and we can't afford no shoes as the kids will eat em for dinner

some folks don't know they was born i tells ya

i've called off work for FAR less than that

Who fixes all that stuff when it gets broke? I mean if you know someone else is going to come in and fix it while you're gone, then going on to work seems like a pretty good option, but if you have to be there, contact the repair people, pay 'em and all that then going to work when you have things going bad at home seems a bit off, the point of going to work is to take care of your personal life, right.

psychodelicide said:

when your water heater broke, you lost your electricity, or you lost your heat? I don't think I ever have. I have taken ice cold showers when the water heater was not working or when the furnace was broken, and have gotten dressed for work using a flashlight and/or candles when the electricity was out. Guess I've learned to "go with the flow" when things like this happen. I know of people who have called off work for the above-mentioned reasons. I dunno, in that situation, I would WANT to go to work. At least I would have hot water, electricity and heat for part of the day, anyway.

Nope nope and nope.... daughter has even gone to school when all those things happen.... its a way of life around Illinois imho.

Oh, yeah. I've called in for what some would consider trivial, like the death of a beloved pet. When my cat died (he was 16, and I had him for 15 of those years), I took 2 days bereavement " leave. I ccompared it to losinsg a child...he was my baby.

This past June, my tankless water heater finally died after 10 years. I had to take a day off when I had a new heater installed. Somebody had to be home, and since I live alone, it had to be me.

[Edited 12/19/12 18:08pm]

Nothinbutjoy said:

I've called to come in late for power outage.

We have an electric garage door opener and the garage door is a BEAST when the power is out. It takes so long to open the door manually. I hate it.

I've taken ice cold showers when the hot water heater goes out and used my car vents to blow dry my hair.

That would be a pain in the butt to try to open an garage door opener manually during a power outage. Using the car vents to blow dry your hair is a good idea that I never thought of before.

unique said:

ice cold showers is a luxury where i come from. we have to walk 20 miles to work uphill each day in the snow and 20 miles back home uphill again, in the snow every day, and we have to carry a bag of coal. and we can't afford no shoes as the kids will eat em for dinner

some folks don't know they was born i tells ya

MoBetterBliss said:

i've called off work for FAR less than that

I'm sure you're not the only one. It happens all the time.

morningsong said:

Who fixes all that stuff when it gets broke? I mean if you know someone else is going to come in and fix it while you're gone, then going on to work seems like a pretty good option, but if you have to be there, contact the repair people, pay 'em and all that then going to work when you have things going bad at home seems a bit off, the point of going to work is to take care of your personal life, right.

I get what you're saying. I live in a condo complex, and have a hot water tank that is for the whole building. So if it stops working, everybody in the building has no water. It's kind of the same thing when the electricity or heat goes off; everybody in this building is affected. I just have to call the correct number to let the power/gas company know that I am having an issue. I'm sure a lot of other people in my building make a phone call as well. Usually the electricity or heat can be repaired without someone being home to let the repair person in, since the repair work is mostly done outside. I don't have to be home to wait to let someone in.

Now a couple of times when my cable stopped working, or I was having something done to it, I've had to be home because the cable box itself had to worked on.

I guess it depends on your situation.

toots said:

psychodelicide said:

when your water heater broke, you lost your electricity, or you lost your heat? I don't think I ever have. I have taken ice cold showers when the water heater was not working or when the furnace was broken, and have gotten dressed for work using a flashlight and/or candles when the electricity was out. Guess I've learned to "go with the flow" when things like this happen. I know of people who have called off work for the above-mentioned reasons. I dunno, in that situation, I would WANT to go to work. At least I would have hot water, electricity and heat for part of the day, anyway.

Nope nope and nope.... daughter has even gone to school when all those things happen.... its a way of life around Illinois imho.

It's a way of life here in Ohio too. Us Midwesterners are tough.

Shyra said:

Oh, yeah. I've called in for what some would consider trivial, like the death of a beloved pet. When my cat died (he was 16, and I had him for 15 of those years), I took 2 days bereavement " leave. I ccompared it to losinsg a child...he was my baby.

This past June, my tankless water heater finally died after 10 years. I had to take a day off when I had a new heater installed. Somebody had to be home, and since I live alone, it had to be me.

[Edited 12/19/12 18:08pm]

That's not trivial at all. As a cat owner myself, I fully understand why you would consider your cat to be your child. They definitely become part of our family, no doubt about it.

You were wise to take time off from work. I remember once when I had to put a beloved cat to sleep. He had cancer and it was getting worse. I knew the most humane (but most difficult) thing to do was to put him out of his misery. The night before the cat was put to sleep, I didn't sleep much at all. I cried a lot that night. Then the next day, I went into work, and was crying off and on there too. I probably would have been better off just calling off sick or something. I had a hard time getting any work done that day, and was having a difficult time concentrating.