It is a standing joke in my household that I am almost always running late. This did not use to be the case. In fact, at one point I was almost always early. Since getting married, becoming a homeowner, adopting a dog, and working full-time, however, my time is more stretched than it has ever been and simply leaving for work has become a lengthy process.
It turns out that I’m in good company, though. A new survey just released by CareerBuilder says that 15% of American workers say they are late to work at least once a week. The most common reason given for being late is traffic (32% of people blamed this one). Falling back asleep comes in second place (17% of the respondents in the survey provided this excuse), and a long commute is the third most common excuse (used by 7% of the people in the survey).
These are all understandable excuses to a certain extent because there are certainly extenuating circumstances that can prevent people from getting to work on time. Sometimes life happens and it makes us late for work. Of the 2,757 hiring managers who participated in the survey, 43% said they did not mind if an employee came in late as long as the work was completed well and on time.
This is not to say that coming in late every day should be your plan, though, as the rest of the hiring managers indicated that they would consider firing an employee who consistently showed up late. In fact, 27% of the hiring managers stated that they were skeptical about the excuses employees gave for being late (this is funny because 24% of the 6,987 employees admitted to making up bogus reasons).
Some of those bogus reasons may have made it onto the list provided by the hiring managers of the top ten excuses they’ve ever heard for being late. These excuses will no doubt live on in infamy long after the employees who gave them have left the company:
- While rowing across the river to work, I got lost in the fog.
- Someone stole all my daffodils.
- I had to go audition for American Idol.
- My ex-husband stole my car so I couldn't drive to work.
- My route to work was shut down by a Presidential motorcade.
- I wasn't thinking and accidentally went to my old job.
- I was indicted for securities fraud this morning.
- The line was too long at Starbucks.
- I was trying to get my gun back from the police.
- I didn't have money for gas because all of the pawn shops were closed.
Overall, the message seems to be that being late is not the end of the world as long as it’s infrequent and well justified. Your boss and co-workers are relying on you to be where you say you’ll be when you say you’ll be there, and when you’re late it affects their work as well.
Then again, if someone steals all your daffodils you have to deal with that, right?
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