The 10 Most Outrageous Excuses for Being Late to Work

It’s no surprise that a recession makes those who have survived layoffs more appreciative of the jobs they held onto. So no one really paid attention this week when the employment website CareerBuilder released a new survey that concluded, “Since the recession began, more workers are starting their work day on time.”

Sure, “15 percent of workers said they arrive late to work once a week or more, down from 16 percent in 2009 and 20 percent in 2008,” CareerBuilder said. But buried in its survey were the excuses workers gave their bosses – with the top excuses being “traffic jam” (30 percent), “I overslept” (19 percent), and “the weather’s awful” (9 percent).

But the best part of the survey was the part where they asked employers for the silliest excuses they’d ever heard. Here are the top 10…

1. “Employee claimed his car was inhabited by a hive of bees, and he couldn’t use the car for two hours until bees left.”
2. “Employee claimed their cat attacked them.”
3. “Employee claimed it was a delay with public transportation and produced a note signed by ‘The Bus Driver.'”
4. “Employee claimed his Botox appointment took longer than he expected.”
5. “Employee claimed his hair was hurting his head.”
6. “Employee claimed they did not get any sleep because their boyfriend’s wife threw them out of the house.”
7. “Employee claimed their Karma was not in sync that day.”
8. “Employee claimed they got hurt taking a fork out of the dishwasher.”
9. “Employee claimed they weren’t late … the company clock was wrong.”
10. And our favorite: “Employee claimed they knew they were already going to be late, so they figured they’d go ahead and stop to get donuts for everyone.”