This Year’s Oddest Excuses for Being Late to Work
When asked how often they come in late to work, one in four workers admitted they do it at least once a month, and 13% say it’s a weekly occurrence for them, according to an annual CareerBuilder survey.
Approximately two-thirds (67%) of employers and employees (66%) believe the concept of “working 9 to 5” is an antiquated practice, but more than half of employers (51%) expect employees to be on time every day, and four in 10 (41%) have fired someone for being late.
Some employers are more lenient than others, however. One-third of employers (33%) say they have no problem with the occasional late arrival, as long as it doesn’t become a pattern, and 16% say they don’t need employees to be punctual if they can still get their work done. To that end, 62% of workers who arrive late say they will stay later to make up for it.
In general, the usual suspects are to blame for why employees are late to work: Traffic (53%), oversleeping (33%), bad weather (28%), lack of sleep (23%) and needing to get kids to daycare or school (15%).
NEXT: Odd excuses for being late to workWhen asked about the most outrageous excuses employees have given them for being late, employers shared the following:
- I thought of quitting today, but then decided not to, so I came in late.
- My hair caught on fire from my blow dryer.
- I was detained by Homeland Security.
- I had to chase my cows back into the field.
- A black bear entered my carport and decided to take a nap on the hood of my car.
- My lizard had to have emergency surgery in the morning and died during surgery. I had to mourn while deciding whether to have the lizard disposed of by the vet or bring the lizard corpse with me to work.
- There was fresh powder on the hill. I had to go skiing.
- There was a store grand opening and I wanted to get the opening day sales.
- I had to finish watching “My Name is Earl.”
- All of my clothes were stolen.
- I was confused by the time change and unsure if it was “spring forward” or “fall back.”
- A Vaseline truck overturned on the highway and cars were slipping left and right.