More than half of US employers consider getting to work on time to be a necessity for their workers, but the reality doesn’t always match the ideal.
When asked how often they come in late to work, one in four workers surveyed by CareerBuilder say they do it at least once a month and 13% admit that it’s a weekly occurrence for them.
But it isn’t always traffic delays, missed alarms and bad weather that keep workers from making it in on time. According to the CareerBuilder survey, Homeland Security, Vaseline and lizard surgeries are just a few of the things workers claim got in the way of their punctuality.
More than 2,500 hiring and human resource managers and more than 3,200 workers across industries participated in the nationwide survey conducted online by Harris Poll from November 4 and December 1, 2015.
When asked about the most outrageous excuses employees have given them for being late, employers shared the following 12 whoppers:
- 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.
CareerBuilder noted that excuses like these may be growing more thin on the ground as an increasing number of organizations move toward more flexible schedules.
About two in three employers and employees believe the concept of “working 9 to 5” is an antiquated practice, and one in three employers say they have no problem with the occasional late arrival as long as it doesn’t become a pattern. Another 16% say they don’t need employees to be punctual if they can still get their work done.
In general, the usual suspects are to blame for why employees don’t make it to work on time: traffic (53%), oversleeping (33%), bad weather (28%), lack of sleep (23%) and needing to get the kids to daycare of school (15%).
What is the tardiness policy at your office? Have you heard any excuses to top the ones listed here? Tell us in the comment section below!
