Lizard surgery, flaming tresses and lost cows: Strangest excuses for being late to work
Few things are more irritating to employers than workers’ habitual tardiness. And few things are funnier than CareerBuilder’s annual list of excuses employees have offered to explain their being late.
More than 2,500 hiring and human resource managers (more than 2,300 in the private sector) and more than 3,200 workers across industries participated in CareerBuilder’s nationwide survey, conducted online by Harris Poll.
First off, just how widespread is the problem? When asked how often they come in late to work, 1 in 4 workers (25%) admitted they do it at least once a month, and 13% say it’s a weekly occurrence for them — on par with last year.
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%).
But check out the crackbrain excuses other tardy toilers offered:
- 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.
No excuse needed?
CareerBuilder says in the future, excuses might not be necessary as organizations move toward more flexible schedules. Approximately 2 in 3 employers (67%) 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 4 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 will stay later to make up for it.
