News & Information

CCH® HR MANAGEMENT - 03/17/09

One-in-five workers are late to work at least once a week

Twenty percent of workers said they arrive late to work at least once a week up from 15 percent in 2007, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey. One-in-ten (12 percent) said they are late at least twice a week. This survey was conducted among more than 8,000 workers between November 12 and December 1, 2008.

Actual reasons for coming in late vary from worker to worker, but traffic was the main culprit with one-third (33 percent) of workers claiming it caused their tardiness. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) said lack of sleep, while 10 percent said getting their kids ready for school or day care was the main reason. Other common reasons included public transportation, wardrobe issues or dealing with pets.

"While some employers tend to be more lenient with worker punctuality, 30 percent say they have terminated an employee for being late," said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder.com. "Workers need to understand their company's policies on tardiness and if they are late, make sure they openly communicate with their managers. Employers have heard every excuse in the book, so honesty is the best policy."

Hiring managers provided the following examples of the most outrageous excuses employees offered for arriving late to work:

• My heat was shut off so I had to stay home to keep my snake warm.
• My husband thinks it's funny to hide my car keys before he goes to work.
• I got locked in my trunk by my son.
• My left turn signal was out so I had to make all right turns to get to work.
• I was attacked by a raccoon and had to stop by the hospital to make sure it wasn't rabid.
• I feel like I'm in everyone's way if I show up on time.
• My father didn't wake me up.
• My driveway washed away in the rain last night.
• I had to go to bingo.

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