Late for Work Again? You’re Not Alone
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monkeybusinessimages/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Your boss might not buy the excuse “Better late than never” but that isn’t stopping millions of workers from not clocking in on time.
CareerBuilder asked over 3,000 full-time employees and over 2,100 hiring managers about worker tardiness with 14 percent admitting they show up to work late at least once a week and 23 percent acknowledging that it happens once a month.
Among those who do come into work late, 30 percent said they’ve lied about the reason. Their fear of telling the real story might be justified since about four in ten employers have terminated a worker because of tardiness while a third will overlook it, provided it doesn’t become chronic.
If you’re lucky, you might work for one of the 16 percent of bosses who don’t mind at all as long as the work gets finished.
Topping the list of reasons why people come in late is bad traffic. In second place is lack of sleep with lousy weather in third.
According to the CareerBuilder survey, here are the most outrageous excuses employers have heard for being late:
* I knocked myself out in the shower.
* I was drunk and forgot which Waffle House I parked my car next to.
* I discovered my spouse was having an affair, so I followed him this morning to find out who he was having an affair with.
* Someone robbed the gas station I was at, and I didn’t have enough gas to get to another station.
* I had to wait for the judge to set my bail.
* There was a stranger sleeping in my car.
* A deer herd that was moving through town made me late.
* I’m not late. I was thinking about work on the way in.
* I dreamed that I got fired.
* I went out to my car to drive to work, and the trunk had been stolen out of it. (In this case, the employee had the photo to prove it.)
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