Comments on: Can you top these workers’ excuses for being late?

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:05:55 +0000

I had an employee call me and say she was going to be running a few minutes late. Okay, thanks for calling. 3 hours later she shows up with coffee from a drivethru coffee stand and tells me, “My parrot chewed through all my clock wiring and I had no way to tell time.” Hmmm, you knew you were running late AND you stopped for coffee.

Next week. Same lady.

Hey I’m going to be late today. Okay. Shows up 2 hours later. “My van door flew off and I was unable to continue down the road. I was afraid my son would fly out and die.” So I go out to the parking lot… the door looked fine. Apparently she knows how to re-attach doors, hammer out dents and touch up paint.

The grand finale… no call, no show until very late in the day. I finally get a call. I just woke up in the hospital. I have amnesia. I cannot remember anything (except where you work apparently). Oh and by the way, if you are going to say you are in the hospital??? Don’t let your dog bark it’s head off in the background.

You can guess how this turned out.

By: Top 10 HR Blunders of 2008 | HRBlunders.com | The worst mistakes, catastrophes, and near-misses

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:15:34 +0000

[...] Can you top these workers’ excuses for being late? No top-10 list would be complete without … a top-10 list on it. CareerBuilder.com provided [...]

By: John

John — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:38:19 +0000

Same employee two weeks back to back. First one the bridge closest to my house washed away.( I check it really washed away) So I have to take the long way into town. the following Tuesday he called and left a message on my cell phone. He was involved in a four car one plane accident. I beleaved him because I was backed up traffic for three hours.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:03:37 +0000

Employee missed a work day. He came in the next day and said he had alge in his eye and couldn’t come to work the previous day.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:57:36 +0000

As I was getting on the bus to come to work, I noticed a sign stating, “Passengers must carry dogs on bus”. It took me 30 minutes to find a dog.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:58:16 +0000

true story: Our salesman came in late to work on Monday stating his wife had left him, took all the furniture, and turned off his electricity. After taking a cold shower (this was in Dec.) he accidentially (like it would happen on purpose) locked himeself out of his house and had to break in to get his car keys, this triggered his house alarm and he had to explain when the police showed up brandishing guns. After this was over, he backed out of his driveway and ran over (killing) his dog. We sent him back home and I suggested he write a C & W song.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:06:24 +0000

I had an employee call in and say that his dog got drunk and didn’t wake him up on time. When he got to work, he explained that he had passed out the night before and the dog drank his beer (I assume out of a glass and not out of the can). The dog normally woke him up every morning, but that morning the dog was too hung over and didn’t get the employee up on time.

By: Nanacy

Nanacy — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:01:41 +0000

Employee with a 9 a.m. start time called in saying she would be late due to a flat tire. At 10:00 a.m. she called back to report her father was coming to change the flat. At 11:30 a.m. she called to say she was so traumatized by the flat that she could possible perform her secretarial duties that day.

She didn’t last long after that.

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:39:34 +0000

I had an employee call to say she would be late and didn’t arrive until after noon on a Monday. Later that week, a meeting was held with this employee to discuss her job performance and excess tardiness and this incident was referenced. She explained that she had been out drinking that Sunday night very late and just couldn’t get up the next morning and get to work. However, we didn’t terminate her until a few months later due to her constant falling asleep while at her computer, among other things.

By: Nancy, SPHR

Nancy, SPHR — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:04:18 +0000

This is true, I swear! I had an employee call to say he had to take his pot bellied pig to the “sty”chiatrist because it was acting up! I suggested to the employee that he take himself to the psychiatrist if he thought we were going to buy that excuse! He did report to work even though he was two hours late.