3 dumbest excuses for being late — that are probably true
August 13, 2008 by Shane BorerPosted in: "Would you want this person in Finance?", Fighting off fraud, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest news & views
One in four workers admits to making up excuses for arriving late. But the next time you hear one of these, don’t be so quick to pass it off.
Traffic’s always a pain and people fall back asleep after turning off the alarm, but these three reasons might be a little more legitimate these days:
- “My route to work was shut down by a Presidential motorcade.” — Especially in an election season, with candidates traveling nationwide, it’s not surprising to see major roads closed down in anticipation of a big visit. Technically, they’re not “Presidential” motorcades, but they’ll stop traffic just as easily. And if your company’s in the Washington, D.C. area, there’s no telling when a full-fledged police escort could gum up the works.
- “I had to go audition for American Idol.” — More people are staying home more often, and that can mean only one thing — it’s much easier to catch the Idol fever. The lines to audition start forming days in advance, and although Tina from accounting definitely isn’t the next Kelly Clarkson, she’s going to try her best.
- “I didn’t have money for gas because all of the pawn shops were closed.” — Employees might not like it, but sometimes, the only way to fill up the tank is to sell off the electronics and jewelry you shouldn’t have bought in the first place.
Have you heard any excuses for arriving late that can top these? Whether you think they’re true or not, share them in the comments section below and let everyone else be the judge.
Tags: American Idol, Commutes, Gas, Kelly Clarkson, Late excuses, President
August 15th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Employee arrived 20 minutes late because she could not find anything to wear all her clothes just fell off of her. She has been loosing weight and couldn’t find anything to wear.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
There was shoot out between gangs members and the police @ my apt. complex and the police shut down all access to and from out building. How true in Baltimore.
My bank card got stuck in the card swipe @ the Red box machine.
My neighbor’s dog pooped on my front steps.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
One employee could not get her car out of the garage due to a power outage and the opener wouldn’t work to open the garage door.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Our employees are nothing if not creative, and honest. One employee told me she was late because when she got up in the morning she noticed her carpet needed to be swept so she ran the vacum before coming to work!
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
I saw a fire truck as I was coming to work and went home to make sure my house wasn’t on fire.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I had an employee tell me once that he didn’t show up for work on time because his girlfriend had turned off his alarm and didn’t call to wake him up. The problem with this story was, he was not scheduled to come in until 1pm.
September 26th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I was purchasing a cellphone at a phone store and a supervisor received a phone call from an employer that explained the reason that they were late to work was because they had been out partying the previous evening and could not find where they had parked their car.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I’m in Florida and summers are hot, so, this may be true. My best friend had an employee arrive late because she had to clean out the trunk of her car. It seems that she had bought a watermelon the week before and forgot to take it in the house. The Florida heat made the watermelon explode in her trunk.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
We had a supervisor come in over an hour late for a meeting one morning. Her excuse was that a car hit a skunk by her house the previous evening. The explanation was that the smell was so bad that she had to close the bedroom window in order to get to sleep. But then it was so hot in the room that she had to turn a fan on in the bedroom. But the fan was so loud that she could not hear the alarm when it went off and she overslept.