Lizard surgery, Homeland Security and Vaseline trucks. What do they all have in common?

According to a study from CareerBuilder, they are among a list of outrageous reasons workers claim they have been late for work.

Below are some of the bizarre reasons for being late to work:

• I thought of quitting today, but then decided not to, so I came in late.
• My hair caught on fire from my blow dryer.
• I was detained by Homeland Security.
• I had to chase my cows back into the field.
• A black bear entered my carport and decided to take a nap on the hood of my car.
• My lizard had to have emergency surgery in the morning and died during surgery. I had to mourn while deciding whether to have the lizard disposed of by the vet or bring the lizard corpse with me to work.
• There was fresh powder on the hill. I had to go skiing.
• There was a store grand opening and I wanted to get the opening day sales.
• I had to finish watching “My Name is Earl.”
• All of my clothes were stolen.
• I was confused by the time change and unsure if it was “spring forward” or “fall back.”
• A Vaseline truck overturned on the highway and cars were slipping left and right.
• CareerBuilder also asked how often employees are late to work, 25 percent (1 in 24) admitted they are late at least once a month, and with 13 percent saying it is a weekly occurrence.

With Christmas only a month away, it is getting colder and much harder to get out of bed in the morning. For some people, this can make getting to work on time a difficult task. You would be surprised of what could get in the way of your morning routine. Many of these excuses are extreme and may have more to do with one’s creative imagination than anything else. However, you can bet employers are going to hearing more late-to-work excuses especially coming up to Christmas.

In order to prevent tardiness in your organisation, why not take advantage of Softworks Flexible Working and deploy a Time and Attendance system.

Flexible working is a very positive choice that needs to be embraced by more organisations. It doesn’t only provide employees with job satisfaction, better health, increased work-life balance, and less stress, it also benefits employers. With higher productivity levels, less turn over, and reduced absenteeism, employers will be able to retain qualified employees and also save money. With flexible working, excuses for being late to work will be less necessary as employees will have the flexibility to work around appointments, family events and of course, all of the excuses listed above!

Softworks Time Management Software will allow your organisation to build a clear picture of employee time-keeping through comprehensive reports on attendance, absenteeism, overtime, flexi-time, rostering and holiday leave. Softworks Time and Attendance is one of the most powerful tools available for recording and analysing hours worked. Used to manage employee attendance and produce real-time reports for analysis by management as well as to collate personnel information. It allows you to build a clear picture of employee time through detailed data and reports on attendance, absenteeism, overtime, flexi-balances, rostering and holiday leave. Scalable and completely configurable, it applies and automates processing your organisation’s unique pay rules and policies accurately and consistently and is fully compliant with legislation.

The survey also found more traditional excuses for being late to work are still very common:

• 53 percent blamed traffic and road conditions.
• 33 percent said oversleeping.
• 28 percent on bad weather.
• 15 percent on getting children to school.

By implementing Softworks Flexible Working and Time & Attendance Software, employees and employers will be able to overcome the traditional excuses of being late to work (along with a few of the outrageous ones too!).

Request a Free Demo Today!

You can also turn your administrative nightmare of managing employee time & attendance into a dream come true with Softworks new self-service app. Softworks app enables employees to record their own time, attendance, holidays, absences and check work schedules via their smart phones/tablets. Softworks app is a joy to use and loved by employees and managers alike, but you don’t have to just take our word for it, find out more via this link.  

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