Stung by a Scorpion, and Other Ancient Reasons to Skip Work
call in sick: to tell your employer that you are too ill to come to work
The men who built tombs for Egypt’s kings worked hard, but even they needed a break. Some days they stayed home to brew beer. About 3,200 years ago, someone kept an attendance list of 40 workers and the reason given for every day each one missed. The list, in black and red ink on a flat piece of limestone, still exists today.
The workers lived around 1250 BC, during the rule of the pharaoh Ramses II. They worked on the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. And like workers everywhere, they sometimes called in sick.
Illness was the most common reason on the list. A man named Seba was stung by a scorpion. Another, Huynefer, missed work again and again because of a problem with his eye. Other reasons were more personal. Some men were away to prepare the body of a dead relative, to make an offering to a god, or to go to a feast. Ten men stayed home because a wife or daughter was menstruating. Brewing beer was a real reason for missing work, too. Thirteen of the 40 workers took 17 days off between them to make it.
A scorpion sting would still get you a day off today. Brewing beer might be harder to explain.
Sample sentences
I felt terrible this morning, so I called in sick and went back to bed.
Half the office called in sick the day after the company party.
In twenty years at the factory, my father never once called in sick.
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Ancient Egyptians Took Attendance at Work, Their Excuses Are Like Ours
