work excuse. I need a good (serious) one!

[defhalotones]

Hey all. I have a HUGE poker tourny coming up this friday, and need the day off. I just started this job of mine a week ago, and know it will probably look bad if i call off a friday. It is Monday right now. I deliver pizzas from 4-8 that night, and the tourny starts at 6pm. Should i tell them (pizza hut) i cant work friday, or should i call in sick thurs. night? I have a boatload of blank doctors excuses, so im leaning towards calling thurs night. The only catch is i work thursday night, and would have to put on a show to make it look like im sick. What would you guys do?
Thanks,

-Jake-

[UncleBuddy]

hmmmm. Friday night excuses are tough to come by. Do you use your own vehicle? Perhaps you can say that the car broke down.

[Les_Worm]

Since its only monday, you have plenty of time to get someone to work for you instead of racking your brain trying to think of some elaborate scheme. Sometimes things are simple....

[a500lbgorilla]

1)Take the hit and show up at work.
2)Call in sick
3)Try to ask for the day off today, try to get someone to cover.
4)Convince someone in your family to die on thursday.

-'rilla

[defhalotones]

The only thing that can backfire about trying to ask for it off tommorow (getting someone to cover my shift) is that either no one can cover my shift, or i didn't give them enough warning a head of time. If that happens, i cant use my sick excuse. If i use a sick excuse, and tell them i have a doctors excuse, they cant say anything, right?

-Jake-

[a500lbgorilla]

Asking ahead of time is clearly the best choice. You should be able to get someone to cover 80% of the time. If not, you're just screwed. But it's just 1 tourny.

-'rilla

[Ayce]

Try and get cover, failing that just go to work. Chances are you will crap out in the tourney anyway.

[whileone]

pizza hut is pretty hard on thier managers. i don't think there's any way you're gonna get the time off. if it's your first week, trying to call on the busiest night of the week isn't going to win you any favors.

if you need the job, if you think you'll ever want to work at pizza hut again (or any of pepi's fast food places), ask for the time off. say you had a commitment you forgot about when you were hired.

If it was me, and they didn't give me the time off, i'd look for a new job.
if i found a new job before friday, i'd quit and tell them they should have given me the time off. but i'm a jerk.

[ensign_lee]

To be fully honest, if this place is a close knit kind of place where all the employees know each other pretty well, you're going to look like a douchebag trying to bail on the first Friday that you work. If this is the beginning of a summer job for you or something, I'd go to work. The relationships you have with the other people there will affect you profoundly more than any money you might (potentially) win. Go to work, man.

I was a manager at Coldstone Creamery (I know; not quite the same, but close enough, no?) the last summer and whenever we had a new recruit try to bail sometime in the first week they were hired, the other managers and I tried to give them the shaft jobs for the rest of the time they were there, unless of course it was a really good excuse.

You might be able to get away with "I had a prior engagement that I hadn't considered when I was hired", and that might be good enough, provided that you're really good at your job, but I wouldn't really try it. If you win, and go on and try to brag to your fellow employees, they'll put two and two together and go "oh; so I had to work that night because you were playing in a POKER TOURNAMENT?!?!?"...and things just kinda go downhill from there.