Best Reasons for Being Late to Work: 24 Percent Have Given False Reasons at One Time or Another

"My cat crawled up into the engine compartment of my car, and it took me an hour to get him out."- An actual excuse from an employee for being late.

Being a manager in the restaurant business for quite a few years, I have come across some pretty bizarre excuses for being late. Most office managers today will excuse tardiness by their employees as long as they get their projects done on time. In the restaurant business, it's more important that the employees be on time. Say that you're running a lunch shift with 5 people and 2 of them are late. That means that for at least part of your lunch, you're working at almost 50% staffed. That can put a serious crimp in your ability to serve customers. That's why, although I think I was a pretty laid back guy to work for, I was adamant about being on time and ready to work when you're supposed to be there, the same applied to missing work. Then you compromised the whole shift.

And there were some pretty good excuses. One common reason for missing work or being late was that you had to attend a funeral. You'd be surprised how many times the same grandfather or grandmother, aunt, or uncle can pass away, sometimes several times in as little as six months. And people can never seem to find the funeral director to get a note. Where do these people hide anyway? The car breaking down was another good one. But somehow it gets running again the next day without any repair bills or the receipt for a part if you did it yourself. A lot of my employees had cars that broke down and then could be repaired with a rubber band and some string. Then there was the weekend epidemic of illness. Every Friday night the nasty bug went around just in time to get people sick over the weekend. And if that Friday were a payday, the epidemic suddenly would intensify.