It’s that time again, for CareerBuilder’s survey on extraordinary employee excuses for being late.
From wild animals on the loose, to missing milk, these excuses will have you scratching you HR head.
Usually we pick a few, but we had to include them all here.
- Employee woke up on the front lawn of a house two blocks away from his home.
- Employee claimed a zebra was running down the highway and held up traffic (turned out to be true).
- Employee’s cat got stuck in the toilet.
- Employee couldn’t eat breakfast—He ran out of milk for cereal and had to buy some before getting ready for work.
- Employee was late to work because he fell asleep in the car when he got to work.
- Employee accidentally put superglue in her eye instead of contact lens solution, and had to go to the emergency room.
- Employee thought Halloween was a work holiday.
- Employee said a hole in the roof caused rain to fall on the alarm clock and it didn’t go off.
- Employee was watching something on TV and really wanted to see the end.
- Employee forgot that the company had changed locations.
- Employee got a hairbrush stuck in her hair.
- Employee was scared by a nightmare.
Do you have a story about a worker’s weird excuse for being late? Tell us below!
Sadly, I bet quite a few of these were true. I wish they included the employers’ respective reactions.
Had an employee state one time that he had a dream his days off where changed.
I told him I had a dream he was AWOL. lol
Employee drove five miles from home to go for a run. He only took his phone when he got out of the car, locked his keys and wallet in his car. Called pop-a-lock, they came but he said it took him a hour to convince them it was his car but could not prove it because his wallet was in the car. He never thought to use his cell phone to call work to say he’d be late.
Love your AWOL comment! Just perfect.
Had an employee show up on third day just before the end of her shift. She said that she had been absent without call because she had been kidnapped (before cell phones), and the two guys who had taken her two days before had let her out in front of the facility so she would not lose her job due to our three day no call rule.
I had a legitimate excuse for not showing up to work once that sounds absurd but true. I couldn’t getto work because my tires had frozen to the ground. The car was siting in a large puddle of water during a winter storm. The water was over the rims of the car wheels. Of course it has been a joke on the job for 30 years now when someone calls off during winter storms.