WASHINGTON — More than one in four Americans admit to being late for work at least once a month. Most excuses are predictable — traffic, or hitting the snooze button once too often. But CareerBuilder’s list of most outrageous excuses bosses have heard includes some ridiculous ones.
“I forgot it wasn’t the weekend,” “I thought Flag Day was a legal holiday” and “My mother-in-law wouldn’t stop talking” are among excuses on the list.
By far the most common excuse for being late to work is traffic, cited by 49 percent of HR managers in CareerBuilder’s survey, followed by oversleeping, cited by 32 percent. Then came the bad weather excuse at 26 percent and procrastination, 17 percent.
While 29 percent of workers surveyed said they were late at least once a month, 16 percent said being late for work is a weekly occurrence for them.
Forty-nine percent of HR managers surveyed said they have fired an employee for being late.
Here are a few of the more outrageous excuses from CareerBuilder’s list:
- I forgot it wasn’t the weekend.
- I put petroleum jelly in my eyes.
- I had to watch a soccer game that was being played in Europe.
- I thought Flag Day was a legal holiday.
- My pet turtle needed to visit the exotic animal clinic.
- The wind blew the deck off my house.
- I overslept because my kids changed all the clocks in the house.
- I was cornered by a moose.
- My mother locked me in the closet.
- The pizza I ordered was late being delivered, and I had to be home to accept/pay for it.
- The sunrise was so beautiful that I had to stop and take it in.
- My mother-in-law wouldn’t stop talking.
- My dad offered to make me a grilled cheese sandwich, and I couldn’t say no.
CareerBuilder’s survey included more than 2,600 hiring and human resource managers and more than 3,400 workers across industries. Harris Poll conducted the nationwide survey from Nov. 16 to Dec. 6, 2016.
