There are many reasons employees say they’re late for work, but American employers have heard some strange excuses over the years.
According to a survey from CareerBuilder, here are some of the most memorable excuses they’ve received from workers who showed up late:
- employee claimed a zebra was running down the highway and held up traffic (turned out to be true);
- employee woke up on the front lawn of a house two blocks away from his home;
- employee’s cat got stuck in the toilet;
- employee couldn’t eat breakfast because he ran out of milk for cereal and had to buy some before getting ready for work;
- employee was late to work because he fell asleep in the car when he got to work;
- employee accidentally put superglue in her eye instead of contact lens solution and had to go to the emergency room;
- employee thought Halloween was a work holiday;
- employee said a hole in the roof caused rain to fall on the alarm clock and it didn’t go off;
- employee was watching something on TV and really wanted to see the end;
- employee forgot that the company had changed locations;
- employee got a hairbrush stuck in her hair; and
- employee was scared by a nightmare.
The survey also reveals the normal excuses for their tardiness. Traffic remains the most common reason employees say they’re late (39%), followed by lack of sleep (19%), problems with public transportation (8%), bad weather (7%) and dropping the kids off at daycare or school (6%).
“Most employers understand that occasionally things pop up and cause employees to be behind schedule,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice-president of HR at CareerBuilder. “The trouble comes when tardiness becomes a habit.”
Running a little late could have big repercussions. Thirty-five percent of employers have fired an employee for tardiness, and 48% of employers expect their employees to be on time every day.
Thirty-four percent say they allow employees to be late every once in a while, as long as tardiness doesn’t become a pattern, and 18% don’t care how their employees manage their time, just that they get their work done well.
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,201 hiring managers and HR professionals and 3,008 workers (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) ages 18 and over.
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