The SuperCheats Top 10 Launch Day Excuses

05. Burst Pipes / Home Emergency

This one is a good one because EVERYBODY can relate to situations in which bad things happened through no fault of your own but now you have to clean up the mess.

In Winter burst pipes are good - but even in Summer you can use a plumbing-based emergency - the bottom rusted out of the hot water heater and flooded your basement mate!

In this situation you have to resolve it, and that means waiting for the plumber to arrive and then waiting while they repair the pipes and then install the new water heater...

Caption: Home emergencies come in all types, shapes, and severity - but a burst pipe or blown water heater usually does not result in the summoning of the police, arson investigators, or the need to find a new home... Still, it is nice to know that when things go really wrong there is some official mechanism in place to help you out.

Of course you ALSO have to literally clean up the mess that this disaster has created, because NOT doing so is totally an invitation for worse to appear. Mold - including the dreaded Black Mold - are very real possibilities if you fail to address the damage that this disaster has wrought.

That being so, you are not going to be able to come into work today - but that is OK because based on the responses and comments we obtained from the HR Managers interviewed, this is one of those common disasters that they can totally relate to.

Some even said that they often allow their employees to use a paid vacation day (but NOT a sick day) to cover missing work in cases like this.

If you decide to use the burst pipe / hot water heater as your excuse, it would be a good idea to ask about maybe getting some overtime after you return to work, explaining that the extra expense of paying the plumber really hit your savings hard.

According to our HR Manager sources you actually stand a good chance of scoring some time-and-a-half out of your personal tragedy-cough-Launch-day fun! So how about that?