Excuse Letter For Work Absence (With Examples)

Sometimes you need to miss work for a doctor’s visit, a sick day, or personal reasons. It happens to everyone. You shouldn’t stress about needing to take a day off every once in a while, but it’s important to tell your boss or supervisor.

In these letters, you can explain when you’ll be gone and for how long so your boss and your team is prepared for your absence. You’ll want to double-check for any company guidelines or policies before you write your letter. Generally, companies will accept a short formal excuse letter before you plan on being absent.

How To Write An Excuse Letter

When writing your letter, make sure to follow the business headings format and follow any applicable company guidelines. Above all, try to keep your letter short, so your boss (or whoever you address it to) doesn’t have to spend hours trying to figure out when and why you’re leaving.

You only need three paragraphs to communicate all of your information. Start with an opening paragraph and state that this is an excuse letter for a future absence. You should list your reason and the dates you’ll be out of the office in this first section.

Next, give more details about the absence, like who will cover your duties or how you’ll be available for your teammates to reach you. If anyone has agreed to help you with your projects, make sure to name them. Sometimes it can be helpful to include your co-workers’ information, too, if they’re covering for you.

Finally, end by thanking the person you’re writing to for being understanding, include any additional information and offer to help them plan for your absence. With these three easy steps, you’ll have a perfectly professional absence excuse letter for your boss.

Tips for Writing an Absent Excuse Letter

Like any professional letter, you can follow a template and keep the content short and sweet. Employers don’t need an entire essay on why you have to miss work, but they do need the basics. These letters are just meant to let your boss know when and why you’ll be absent. Here are a few tips for writing a good absence excuse letter for your job.

• Reference your employee guidelines and policies around sick days. Usually, companies have defined process for time off. Consult your employee handbook or double-check what the process is with someone before drafting your letter. Your company should indicate what information they need in an excuse letter or who to deliver your letter to.

  Some companies make a distinction between excused and unexcused absences. Make sure that when you submit your absence letter, you’re leaving work for an approved reason. It depends on your company, but typically pre-planned events like doctor’s appointments, religious holidays, jury duty, or helping immediate family members can be considered excused absences.

• Follow business letter format. This is a professional letter, you’ll need to write your excuse letter like any other professional letter. You don’t have to share all of the details of where you’ll be or what you’ll be doing while you’re out of the office.

  It’s better to keep things short and concise since these letters often go on file for future reference. We’ll give you a template and business letter samples at the end of this article if you need help.

• Don’t abuse your leave. Of course, some employees need to take time off, but that doesn’t mean you should be sending an absence excuse letter once a week or extending your absence past the necessary window. You should think about your reason for leaving before you write and send your excuse letter.

  The more leaves of absence you take, the more likely it is that you’ll end up in a conversation with your boss if you leave all of the time.

• Talk to your teammates. You should coordinate with your team before you draft your letter so you have an idea of who can cover your work if there’s anything that has to get done while you’re gone. This will not only make you look good as a proactive employee, but you’ll also feel better while you’re out knowing who’s got your tasks covered.

• Offer to work remotely if possible. In today’s world, telecommuting or working remotely is easier than ever. If you’re planning an absence because you can’t physically make it to the office instead of being unable to work, think about requesting to work remotely instead of taking an absence.

  Often, you can save your allotted time off by asking to work remotely temporarily.

• Make time for your co-workers to reach you. Even if you’re out of the office, it doesn’t mean your company stops working. You should provide a way (like phone, email, or text) for your teammates to reach you and general hours when you’ll respond. Most likely, your colleagues won’t need to contact you, but it’s good to be prepared and offer this anyway.

• Get your letter written as soon as possible. The more notice you give someone your absence letter, the better. They’ll have more time to coordinate with you and your co-workers to figure out what needs to get done before, during, and after your absence.

• Offer your help. Include specific ways you can help your team while you’re gone or offer to brainstorm ways to help in your letter. Your boss and your teammates will thank you for being flexible and helpful before you leave

• Cover your bases for unexpected absences too. There comes a time when something unexpected comes up. It happens from time to time. You should still send a message as soon as you can. It will look good for you if you follow up on an unexpected leave with a formal letter explaining why you were out and how you’ll make up the work you missed.

  First, contact someone at your office to let them know you’re not coming in, then send a follow up formal absence excuse letter within the next 24-48 hours. For those letters, you can follow our general tips, with a few extra apologies for missing work without notice.

Two Sample Formal Excuse Letters

Here are two examples of how you can write a formal absence excuse letter for work. While you can be absent from work for many reasons, we’re giving you examples of the most common work absences – jury duty and a medical procedure.

Author

Amanda Covaleski

Amanda is a writer with experience in various industries, including travel, real estate, and career advice. After taking on internships and entry-level jobs, she is familiar with the job search process and landing that crucial first job. Included in her experience is work at an employer/intern matching startup where she marketed an intern database to employers and supported college interns looking for work experience.