Last thursday on Page 5 was an article in the cairns paper of how a Local kitesurfer(who had gear failure) had been rescued by a lifesaver as he was been swept along the coastline. The article was more than half the page and the included a photo of the kiter. The report asked him for an interview but he said sorry mate I am having a sickie....so of course they put that in the article....aren't the press lovely? The next day he said he got about 500 calls from people who saw the article.
haha. my last sickie i got busted. went home with a bad back. went back to work the next day surnburnt as hell with a perfect wetsuit line around my neck ...
I am also a manager and my boss is in the same office so I'm under scrutiny as well.
So heres how you do it.
Whenever you leave the office you tell them "I'm of to the beach" When you are late for work "The surf was going off" You always talk about going for a surf, sail whatever before or after work.
This should get to the stage where it is your standard reply to the question of where you were (even if you were working) that you were "down the beach". If you say it jokingly regularly, your boss will start asking how the surf was. You can also grumble (jokingly) about how dedicated you are being at work with these conditions.
I have got it so that when my companies owner comes out from Switzerland once a year he will ask "how's the surf"
Another option is holding time "in lieu" which is Farken brilliant if the waves and/or wind shows up mid week and you can take time of legally mid week whilst the other poor souls are at the grind.
As long as the company dosn't lose out all should be cool.
Last time I took a sickie, the following day I was going to take the Oaklieghs down to a solarium and ask them to take a cut out of em, and give the eyes a tan. I looked like some sort of nocturnal bl@@dy racoon.
I convinced myself that it wasn't that bad, untill I got to work and fellow workmates from 40 ft away were yelling,"Yo steve, looks like the wind was up mate" ect
Thank god the boss was off that day, I think the temp boss thought i was just a "white eyed" strange looking dude.