‘Mother-in-law wouldn’t stop talking’ among most outrageous excuses for being late to work: survey

[projekktor id=’26901′]

If you are chronically late for work, a new study says you are not alone. The survey by job search engine CareerBuilder found nearly 30 per cent of workers admit they are late to work at least once a month and 16 per cent say it’s a weekly occurrence.

The online survey — completed by 2,605 managers and 3,411 employees — found the usual suspects were to blame for why employees are late to work. Traffic was the most used excuse, followed by oversleeping, bad weather, too tired to get out of bed and procrastinating.

Twenty-nine per cent of employers said they don’t mind if an employee is occasionally late, as long as it doesn’t become a pattern.

Here are the some of the most outrageous excuses employers say they have heard from a late employee:

• 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.
• 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.