Four million January skivers...and some truly bizarre excuses

We all have mornings when thought of work makes us pull the duvet over our heads, but this month has seen a staggering 4 million of us taking a sickie as the so-called ‘January blues’ keeps us slugabed.

According to a recent study nearly half of sickie takers “speak in a quieter, more feeble voice” when calling in to make sure their bosses believe them, while one in 20 admitted to crying down the phone to strengthen their case.

But, while most skivers stick with relatively plausible excuses such as food poisoning, migraines and sore throats, some people get a bit creative and come up with truly baffling reasons for not making it into work.

“We were pretty shocked at some of the lengths some Brits are prepared to go to in order to skip work for the day,” remarked a spokesman for Viva entertainment channel, which conducted the survey of 5,000 UK workers.

“But we were also impressed at how imaginative some of the excuses were,” he added.

From 'I’m taking my hamster to the vet' to 'the bus driver stole my shoe' we pick some of the weirdest and wonderful excuses the survey unearthed.

Click here or on the image to launch our guide

Please add any comments or similarly strange excuses below.