Dive Brief:
- We've all been there. Thanks to any number of standard morning blunders, sometimes arriving at work on time just isn't in the cards. But according to a survey from CareerBuilder, things as disparate as Homeland Security, Vaseline and lizard surgeries are used as reasons for not making it to work on time.
- In terms of tardiness, when asked how often they come in late for work, 25% of the 5,700 or so survey participants (2,500 of them hiring or HR managers) admitted they do it at least once a month, and 13% say it’s a weekly occurrence for them.
- As for 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.
Dive Insight:
So what are the oddest late-to-work excuses? Sidestepping the typical issues (traffic, oversleeping, bad weather, sleepless night and getting kids to daycare/school), employers in the CareerBuilder poll (conducted online by Harris) have heard some doozies, including "I thought of quitting today, but then decided not to, so I came in late," and "My hair caught on fire from my blow dryer."
Others include: "I was detained by Homeland Security," "A Vaseline truck overturned on the highway and cars were slipping left and right," and "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."
To that end, 62% of workers who arrive late say they stay later to make up for it – no matter what their excuse.