The Top 10 Most Bizarre Excuses for Being Late to Work
29 percent of us are late for work at least once a month, while 16 percent admit it’s a weekly occurrence. With that kind of track record for tardiness, we have to think up new and better excuses besides the tried-and-true ones. Somehow getting stuck in traffic is just so overused. The Harris Poll and CareerBuilder.com surveyed more than 2,600 hiring and human resource managers and more than 3,400 employees across industries to find out the most outrageous excuses for being late. Remember, the stranger the story the harder it is to believe. So use these with caution.
The top 10 most bizarre — but real — excuses for being late to work:
- I forgot it wasn’t the weekend.
- I put petroleum jelly in my eyes.
- I thought Flag Day was a federal holiday.
- 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-in-law wouldn’t stop talking.
- My mother locked me in a closet.
- The sunrise was so beautiful that I had to stop and take it in.
- My dad offered to make me a grilled cheese sandwich, and I just couldn’t say no.
The five most common excuses for being late to work:
- Traffic: 49 percent
- Oversleeping: 32 percent
- Bad weather: 26 percent
- Too tired to get out of bed: 25 percent
- Procrastination: 17 percent