There is a yearly local festival coming up next month in the little town I work in. It’s during the weekend. I found out my office props up a tent and hands out stuff to passerby’s at the festival. I really, REALLY do not want to attend this. I know for certain they attend on that Saturday. Not sure if they also attend on that Sunday. Anyway, I work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. I am salary which means I probably will not even get paid extra for attending. Even if I do, I am not in the mood to drive into town, fight festival traffic, and hand out flyers and hot dogs to strangers all day on my day off. And I HATE festivals anyway. I cannot stand crowds. Unless I am at a concert I try to avoid crowds as much as possible. I wouldn’t come to the festival for fun, let alone for work.
So…I need some really good reasons as to why I absolutely cannot attend that don’t sound made up. They already know I have a comedy show to go to on that Saturday but that is not until 7pm. This festival runs all day. I need good reasons I cannot be there in the morning or afternoon on Saturday, or at all on Sunday (just in case.) I have thought of saying I have a postponed Easter family thing on that Sunday (the festival is the weekend after Easter.) But I am not sure what I can say for morning/afternoon on Saturday.
I am not going to say things like “I have a funeral” or something. I just feel like lying about that is kind of immoral. But I will take any suggestions. Thank you!
**I know it seems easy to just say “I am not coming and I don’t owe an explanation.” But they can also decide I am not a valuable employee anymore and I am out of a job. It’s not always that easy to just say “no.” That can eventually lead to your employer saying “no” to keeping you employed, if they feel they have good reason. And I don’t want to give good reason. If I have truly legit reason other than “I don’t feel like it” to not attend this thing, it might help keep me off that “not a team player” radar. Make sense?