Does your workplace suffer from employees who are frequently late for work? If so, you aren't alone. A recent survey about reasons why employees are late to work^[1], conducted by CareerBuilder.com, shows that 15% of workers are late for work at least once a week. That number is down from 16% in 2009 and 20% in 2008. They speculate that the reduced late for work percentages are due to the recession.

In the CareerBuilder.com survey, employee excuses for being late for work ranged from the expected - to the unexpected. These were the most common excuses offered about why employees were late for work.

• Delayed by traffic: 30%
• Late to work because of lack of sleep: 19%
• Bad weather: 9%
• Delay in getting kids to day care or school: 8%

CareerBuilder found that other common excuses employees claimed caused them to be late for work included public transportation problems, wardrobe issues, or dealing with pets.

Best Excuses Employees Make About Why They're Late for Work

I've dealt with lots of strange, fabricated, wild, and crazy excuses about why employees came late to work. One of my best ever was the afternoon shift employee who claimed that her grandfather's funeral had run much longer than expected - forgetting that this was the third grandfather whose funeral attendance she had claimed.

Another employee had to borrow money for gas, perhaps not so crazy in that his wages were being garnished at the max. A brave employee said that he was so hung over that he had to stop for breakfast. CareerBuilder heard some best employee excuses, too.

How about you? What's the funniest, weirdest, oddest, most unusual excuse an employee has offered you about why he or she was late for work^[2]? Have more than one? Share all of them.

Manage Employee Attendance

Want to know how to manage employees who are late for work? You can manage employee attendance^[3] problems with these ideas for the supervisor.

_{Image Copyright Krystian Kaczmarski}

More Related to Why Employees Are Late for Work

References

1. ^{^} why employees are late to work (thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com)
2. ^{^} why he or she was late for work (humanresources.about.com)
3. ^{^} manage employee attendance (humanresources.about.com)