[LIGHTER SIDE] Sorry I’m late: there was a zebra in my way

Believe it or not an escaped zebra, a cat stuck in the toilet and a hairbrush stuck in hair are actual excuses staff have dished out to explain their tardiness.

A new survey by CareerBuilder into staff lateness shows that while traffic is the number one reason most employees are late (39%), there are some amusing reasons dished out to managers.

Some of the more memorable excuses employers reported receiving in regards to their staff’s lack of punctuality include:

• Employee claimed a zebra was running down the highway and held up traffic (turned out to be true)
• Employee woke up on the front lawn of a house two blocks away from his home
• Employee’s cat got stuck in the toilet
• Employee couldn’t eat breakfast – he ran out of milk for cereal and had to buy some before getting ready for work
• Employee was late to work because he fell asleep in the car when he got to work
• Employee accidentally put superglue in her eye instead of contact lens solution, and had to go to the emergency room
• Employee said a hole in the roof caused rain to fall on the alarm clock and it didn’t go off
• Employee forgot that the company had changed locations
• Employee got a hairbrush stuck in her hair
• Employee was scared by a nightmare

Aside from traffic jams, more traditional excuses found to be among the most common by the survey were; lack of sleep (19%), problems with public transportation (eight per cent), bad weather (seven per cent) and dropping the kids off at day-care or school (six per cent).

The study also found that nearly one quarter (23%) of employees admit to being tardy at least once a month on average, with 15% admitting to arriving late at least once a week.