'I'm Mourning My Lizard' And Other Excuses People Gave Their Bosses For Lateness
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new survey finds people can be very creative when it comes to lying their way out of lateness.
"Excuses might not be necessary as organizations move toward more flexible schedules," according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder. "But more than half of employers (51 percent) expect employees to be on time every day, and 4 in 10 (41 percent) have fired someone for being late."
Of course, there's always those few who always tend to be later than others. According to the survey, traffic remains the most common reason employees say they're late (53 percent), followed by oversleeping (33 percent), bad weather (28 percent), lack of sleep (23 percent) and needing to get kids to daycare or school (15 percent).
CareerBuilder asked hiring managers the most outrageous late excuses they've ever heard. Here are the top 13:
1. "I thought of quitting today, but then decided not to, so I came in late."
2. "My hair caught on fire from my blow dryer."
3. "I was detained by Homeland Security."
4. "I had to chase my cows back into the field."
5. "A black bear entered my carport and decided to take a nap on the hood of my car."
6. "My lizard had to have emergency surgery in the morning and died during surgery."
7. "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."
8. "There was fresh powder on the hill. I had to go skiing."
9. "There was a store grand opening and I wanted to get the opening day sales."
10. "I had to finish watching 'My Name is Earl.'"
11. "All of my clothes were stolen."
12. "I was confused by the time change and unsure if it was 'spring forward' or 'fall back'."
13. "A Vaseline truck overturned on the highway and cars were slipping left and right."
When asked how often they come in late to work, 1 in 4 workers (25 percent) admitted they do it at least once a month, and 13 percent say it's a weekly occurrence for them — on par with last year.