Late for work? Better have a good excuse

From running out of gas and family issues to broken garage doors, a new survey found some interesting excuses employees have given for workplace tardiness.

The survey was done for CareerBuilder.com. They talked to more than 2,000 managers at various places of employment across the country, as well as 3,000 full time workers, to find out how often they arrive to work late on a monthly basis. The survey found one in five workers admit to coming in late to work at least once a month. Fourteen percent said it is a weekly occurrence for them.

Ryan Hunt, a senior career advisor at CareerBuilder, has several "favorite" excuses.

"The person walked out to their car in the morning and they found a stranger sleeping in there. Or, how about this excuse -- their trunk was missing," Hunt said, listing some of the more unusual excuses.

Hunt said another employee allegedly ran out of gas on the way to work.

"The person was at the gas station waiting. The gas station was robbed, but they didn't have enough gas to get to the next station," Hunt said. "At least that's what they told their boss."

The number one late excuse in the survey involved traffic tie-ups. Just about 50 percent blamed traffic congestion.

"For 30 percent, it's just lack of sleep, just oversleeping the alarm," he said.

In addition, 26 percent claim bad weather delayed their arrival to work, while others cited problems involving family or issues involving buses and trains.

"Kids were also a big issue -- about one in 10 workers, and public transportation issues were also something that we saw," he said.

Experts agree employers are more concerned about how often a worker is late and not so much why.

"The bottom line is you need to get the work done," said Barbara Pachter, president of Pachter Associates in Cherry Hill. Pachter specializes in business etiquette and communications.

Pachter said she knows someone who used the excuse that she was going to be late because she couldn't open her garage.

"She said the electronic opener didn't work. Nobody ever told her that there is an emergency thing, where you can just pull on it and it will release it and then you can open the garage, but she didn't know that. She got to work and everybody was hysterical," Pachter said.

Pachter's other tip about workplace tardiness and your excuse?

"Don't post it on Facebook, that you had this great excuse for not coming to work," she said.

Here are the 10 listed by CareerBuilder.com:

1.  While rowing across the river to work, I got lost in the fog.

2.  Someone stole all my daffodils.

3.  I had to go audition for American Idol.

4.  My ex-husband stole my car so I couldn't drive to work.

5.  My route to work was shut down by a presidential motorcade.

6.  I have transient amnesia and couldn't remember my job.

7.  I was indicted for securities fraud this morning.

8.  The line was too long at Starbucks.

9.  I was trying to get my gun back from the police.

10.  I didn't have money for gas because all of the pawnshops were closed.