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Original poster

How long would it take for people to notice you hadn’t turned up for work?

164 replies

00100001 · 05/03/2019 08:48

I mean, an unplanned absence. So just say, ex day. You decide “fuck it all, I’m staying in bed”.

And then just don’t tell anyone.

How long would it be until some rings//texts etc?

I reckon about 2hours for me.

OP posts:
bebeboeuf · 05/03/2019 10:06

I can be a bit flaky so they might start to wonder after lunchtime?

LBOCS2 · 05/03/2019 10:08

Probably two days? We have lots of external meetings and our team are notorious for not putting WFH days and meetings in the diary, so everyone would probably assume I was working elsewhere.

pourmeanotherglass · 05/03/2019 10:09

Depends on who else was in, and whether there was an issue that needed me. As we all sometimes work a bit flexibly they might not text until 10ish to check where I am.

coffeeforone · 05/03/2019 10:15

I think one of my colleagues would text after about an hour to check I'm ok.

Prequelle · 05/03/2019 10:16

Approx 20 minutes before I'm supposed to actually start because I'm always there early and it's a big thing if one of us doesn't turn I

ravenia · 05/03/2019 10:21

Minutes. I start work earlier than anyone else and as a PA I sit right outside my boss’ office. She’d be texting or calling within ten minutes if she arrived and found me not there and no text from me warning her I’m sick or running late

ineedaknittedhat · 05/03/2019 10:52

About ten minutes because I relieve the following nurse on shift and there'd be hell on if I didn't turn up.

Imnotswallowingthat · 05/03/2019 10:58

Less than a minute. Its my factory, I am always first there to open up otherwise nobody else can get in. If i wasn't there they'd all be stood outside.

pasbeaucoupdegendarme · 05/03/2019 11:01

I get in at about 7.45- 8. I’d get til about 8.10/15 while people thought I’d got caught at nursery drop off or something. By 8.30 people would be worried and I’d be getting phone calls. If not in by 8.45 panic would ensue as I should be collecting my class from the playground by then...

Willowdenedixon · 05/03/2019 11:15

I work in an office, the team is spread around time zones and we all work from home/flex our time or go to meetings in other nearby offices a lot so aren’t always at our desk, we hot desk so easy to miss people. I’m reasonably friendly with my local team, so if one of them didn’t show up or at least appear as online I would check in with them by mid morning if nobody else knew where they were, and we tend to briefly chat or ask a question with each other on instant message everyday. But at one point I was the only one of the team who worked from our office, and I reckon I could have went missing for days before it would have been noticed.

I think HR is limited in how much they can check up on no-shows from an official perspective, so they can’t keep calling/go to your house. It would be up to your team to contact you on a more personal/informal basis.

icannotremember · 05/03/2019 11:31

About an hour probably, although there are times I don't go in to my office when I start work but go straight to a meeting elsewhere. Certainly if my immediate team hadn't heard from me by dinner time they'd be in touch asking where I was.

MotherWol · 05/03/2019 11:44

Probably a couple of days - I work on a different floor to my line manager, and the people in my office aren't actually in my team. I think they'd assume I was working from home/on leave, so it'd take a while before anyone asked where I was.

Meet0nTheledge · 05/03/2019 11:49

A couple of hours before anyone took any notice (we all work flexibly, no core hours). Someone would probably text by lunchtime.

ImaginaryCat · 05/03/2019 11:51

Ooh we've just had a serious bollocking from HR about this. A colleague was sick but she emailed her line mgr, not realising he was also off sick. But we all made a load of assumptions that mgr must know more than us and didn't query her absence. She was off for 4 days before anyone thought to text her.

Basically there was fault on all parts. She should have phoned not emailed and been sure that someone in the office knew. And other managers should have followed up by lunchtime of the first day, in case her cats were munching on her corpse.

SellFridges · 05/03/2019 11:53

Probably a day or so, but only because my friends would be messaging me as they would notice.

My Skype status would give away that I wasn’t there though so it would depend if I had a meeting scheduled with my manager or if she was expecting anything from me.

Supersoaker10 · 05/03/2019 11:57

4 minutes? They are all nobheads who can't think for themselves and would struggle to unlock office door if I wasn't there Hmm

drspouse · 05/03/2019 11:58

Anywhere from 2 days to a week if I hadn't booked AL, though if I decided at 8am to book AL and put it in the diary and it was within the parameters (single days don't require approval) nobody would notice that day.
If someone really needed me they'd email and if I didn't reply they'd try again in a day or two, unless it was urgent/I had a meeting and didn't turn up, but even then if it was colleagues not clients or admin e.g. HR or my line manager - they'd just think I was being flaky.

So anywhere from a day (if something urgent came up) to a week (if I had nothing much in the diary, was supposedly at home head down with a report or some knotty figures).

PuppyMonkey · 05/03/2019 11:59

My last office job, I usually started at 8am but many others in the department didn’t start till 9, so I don’t think anyone would have been too concerned. Plus, it was a job where you could regularly be out and about at appointments so my boss would probably be thinking I was at one of those and she’d maybe just forgotten about it.

I’d say I could have comfortably had a morning off if I’d really fancied it. But I would have still had to do all my work on time and been really stressed, so not really any point.

drspouse · 05/03/2019 12:00

A colleague was sick but she emailed her line mgr, not realising he was also off sick.

We are also supposed to phone not email if off sick (though e.g. if I was on a work trip abroad, but too ill to come home, I woudn't be struggling to call the office at the approved time if it was the middle of the night there). I have had to get DH to ring in sick for me occasionally.
However usually if it's more than a day we'd put an out of office reply on; and I'm assuming her boss was also off for more than one day?

LadyPeach · 05/03/2019 12:02

Haha I once did do this. I was so hungover I literally thought fuck it. I do work from home but by chance no1 called me and I slept all day. Was bliss.

LadyR77 · 05/03/2019 12:04

I usually get to my desk by 8:30am (start time is 9am). I'm the CEO's PA - he'd notice pretty quickly if I didn't turn up!!

caffeinebuzz · 05/03/2019 12:05

It depends what meetings were scheduled, anywhere from 10 mins to all day!

SurgeHopper · 05/03/2019 12:08

9.05 am.

DelurkingAJ · 05/03/2019 12:18

Last job it was a standing joke that if I spent 15 minute leaving plausible voicemails and answering some emails I could have vanished for weeks (I worked in multiple offices on a regular basis and my most frequent boss was also constantly on the move).

This job...a couple of hours.

babysharkah · 05/03/2019 12:21

Could be a couple of days, I'm in and out of the office all the time, dont have a set pattern to WFH days at the moment. It's all in my calendar but unless I failed to turn up to a meeting it could take a while. Perhaps I should try it!

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