If something weird happens, it usually happens to me. I'm a terrible liar anyway so when I try to explain why I'm late, (even if it's the truth), I feel like I'm lying!

I was stuck in the drivethru at Taco Bell.
It's a good thing my husband had to go to the bathroom or I would've really been late! Mom's car was behind ours so my husband had to move hers so I can get out. I left a few minutes early (for once) because he had to, well, go. I had forgotten about the parade down the main street so I turned around in the store plaza (whatever you call it) so I could go another way. I noticed Taco Bell had no one in the drivethru and I was wanting something to eat on the way. Got a burrito supreme (oops. About too messy to eat while driving) and was paying for it. Some people walking by told me and the cashier that someone was parked in the drive thru lane (and then had a little conversation when I needed to get to work!) Sure enough, I pulled around to the end of the lane and someone was parked so I could get out if I drove over a curb or was gutsy driving between them and the curb. The cars owner (they were watching the parade) was close and he was close by. He was going to move it and the Taco Bell employee came out and told him to move it so he slowly did. Had to go a different route to work. Not bad. Only 3 minutes late for work.

My car door won't open
It was froze shut in the winter and I didn't know how to unfreeze it. My manager told me to run hot water over it. DUH!!!! Took awhile but I made it to work.

My car door won't shut
Something to do with the latch. Happened a few times but the first time I didn't know what it was! I felt embarressed to use that one. And since I'm a terrible liar, which is worse? Saying I'm sick and they probably know I'm lying or telling them my door won't shut? My husband fixed it so that hasn't happened in a long time.

I know there's plenty of more but I can't think of them. Of course we all know the "I wasn't paying attention and drove past my exit". Common one for us!

That just proves that we should leave extra early (yeah, way easier said than done for us!) to allow for stupid (but funny to me) things to happen so we don't have to use those excuses!

"I got lost on the way here"

Yeah so, I do get lost on the way to work sometimes! :(

I of course don't plan anything very well, so on my way to work I might decide that I need to go do this or that and take a completely different way. Then I get lost and have no idea how to get to work. Granted I may have been that way before.......:p

My friend is a high school teacher and her favorite "late" excuse from a fourteen year old boy was, "My mom had a baby."

i was late to work today actually :(
I set my alarm for 6.30...(why?!?)
i started at 6.30..
doh!

I don't think any of these "excuses" are that strange (except the "my mom had a baby" one). I've been late for all of the same basic reasons. Not being able to find needed items for the day (cell-phone, wallet, etc.) is a significant one for myself. I generally don't say anything at work as the reason is a non-factor for those supervising (i.e. late is late to them, irrespective of the reason).

"I got lost on the way here"

Yeah so, I do get lost on the way to work sometimes! :(

I of course don't plan anything very well, so on my way to work I might decide that I need to go do this or that and take a completely different way. Then I get lost and have no idea how to get to work. Granted I may have been that way before.......:p

I've done that before! That was the day of a bunch of weird stuff happening in one hour! Then it went back to normal. I knew where I was but I just couldn't seem to get where I wanted to go.

"I'm sorry I can't find my car!"

It was true. I couldn't remember where I parked my car so I called my supervisor and told her I was going to be late because I hadn't found my car yet.

OK..I am a freak..I have never missed work without organizing it....ever...

I can't help it...
I have gone home twice in 15 years sick, and called in once sick...

"I'm sorry....I was working on the Forums" :rolleyes::o











Kidding :)

I can't come to work as I don't have gas

Many years ago in the mid seventies, we had a gas crisis and gas was hard to come by. They were rationing, could only buy on certain days.....

I can't come to work as I don't have gas

Many years ago in the mid seventies, we had a gas crisis and gas was hard to come by. They were rationing, could only buy on certain days.....

Oh yes. I've also run out of gas on the way to work several times because I forgot to check the gas meter.

I was locked in at Mary's Place?

bugger..

at my last job..i was late becuase I was halfway to work and realised I forgot my uniform. So went back home, got changed and went off to work again, then realised I hadnt brought my money..so was back again!
so ended up being very late!
trying to explain this to my supervisor/manager was impossible..
i did try tho..

http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/cfr0015l.jpg



Ouch. I may need some antacid now ... or a tissue




http://www.freewebs.com/gifts2collectibles/gargoyles/Gargoyle%20Picking%20Nose.jpg

aye?
screw you ogre?
lol..explaination?
work? ;)

I'm always late. For almost everything. I tell people I lost something, there was an accident and hence traffic on the highway, I had issues with the kids (I can't do that much longer my oldest is old enough to get it now), and I even used diarrhea a fake excuse one time. You run out of ideas after 35 years lol.

"I'm sorry I can't find my car!"

It was true. I couldn't remember where I parked my car so I called my supervisor and told her I was going to be late because I hadn't found my car yet.

Dude, where's my car!? I've done that several times. I now always park on the blue level in the parking deck, even if there's a closer spot. I never lose my car this way. I used to sometimes park on the street on the weekends. More than once I went to the parking deck (blue level) and had been unable to find my car. While in the panic of trying to figure out what made my Subaru so appealing to a car thief (and why they woul go to the third level of the deck to steal a car), I would realize that it was parked right where I left it, on the street.

I'm late for work every night for the last 8 years. At this point, no one even expects me until quarter to eleven. I don't even try to make an excuse. This is just the way it is. I don't feel guilty cause I never hit the 8AM mark for leaving, usually 30 to 60 minutes late there too. I'm never on time for anything. Everyone who knows me knows this and plans accordingly.

One Christmas, I was going to a family function at my brothers house. I had forgotten to get him a gift and it was too late to do so. I called him the morning we were supposed to be there and told him I had gotten him a big surprise. I think we were supposed to be there at three o'clock. We showed up at 2:45. He asked what the surprise was. I asked him how he liked his surprise. He seemed a little confused :confused: until I explained that I had gotten him the gift of Promptness. I guess he liked it because he still talks about it to this day.:cool:

Lol. Welcome to ADDF, CAUM75.

just forgetting multiple items and having to go back over and over!

My dog died

Said to my boss who called me at home to see why I wasn't at work 30 minutes ago

"It's Tuesday and I am off today"

{yep I was off alright by a day - it was really Monday}

To make up for it I showed up on days I was scheduled off for same reason -

I was late to work once because I got hot pepper juice in my eye!

Another time I could not find my keys and it turned out they were in my underwear drawer.

i had this REALLY bad job once.... while i was doing up a house i needed to keep an income stream, and the only job i could find at the time was in an industrial laundry. I worked 2 shifts one early and one late, and did this house up during the day.....

anyways... this place was so bad, that ppl used to come up with all sorts of lame reasons. One guy's grandmother died 5 times in 4 weeks, seriously/

I just used to call and say, sorry i really cant be ***ked today.

Surprisingly enough i got alot of respect from the bosses. The rest of the staff hated me though, they hated the fact that i was accumulating wealth through property, and they were stuck there in the laundry, i used to say, you know i started with nothing too, its not really that hard......

taught me alot working there actually, life is really what you make of it, and you ALWAYS have choices......

peace and silliness

TheBrownRabbit:)

I tend to tell the truth, I overslept, I'm so sorry.
I spilled my coffee all over and I needed to clean it all up:(, (and make some more).

I spilled my coffee all over and I needed to clean it all up:(, (and make some more).Heh heh. That happened to me today. Five minutes before I'd wanted to leave for work. :rolleyes:

Also, it's got to the point that if I can't find something, I look in the most unlikely places first. I usually find my keys on the washbasin in the bathroom. Or the remote on top of the microwave.

I'm going to be late...my alarm is acting up

I just had a car alarm installed, and on my way driving to work from a hotel, it went off. I worked on a military base and aint no way in heck was I driving up with sirens going off full blast. I opened the hood and could not get the thing to shut up! What made it worse-Is I left the instruction book with the manual keys at my house 50 miles away. I called my boss "sirens still wailing" and drove 1 hour to the circuit city I had it installed. I'm actually driving at 5:30 am while its screaming...the looks I got, 10 miles there it finally went silent. What really sucks is when you actually want to get to work on time!

I have to have at least two hours in the morning before I go to work because I have a routine that I have to follow, so if I don't wake up with enough time in between sleep and leaving for work. Things always go wrong. Its always weird to explain "well I didn't get to cook breakfast before I packed my lunch so I for got to grab my work shirt..." :eek:

Occasionally I set my alarm for PM instead of AM.

Late for final exam Aug 07: bad wreck on interstate they had to close it to land the medevac helicopter, I had left 1 1/2 hours early for my 20 minute drive

Late for Work Feb 01: A tractor trailer truck overturned with a load of 2 by 4 lumber which proceeded to litter the interstate for 4 hours.

I SOMEHOW managed to set off my car alarm, whilst inside...

And the onstar operator locked me in. and turned the engine off..

it took me a full hour to explain that to the police.

It all ended in laughs...... but that was REALLY hard explaining to the instructor.

One time I put two different shoes on and left for work. I drove for about 30 minutes, and then I finally noticed I had two different shoes on. I mean radically different shoes. So I went back home and changed them out. I was actually embarrased at myself.

But I just told the boss that I was throwing up in the morning and finally got it under control.

"I'm sorry I can't find my car!"

It was true. I couldn't remember where I parked my car so I called my supervisor and told her I was going to be late because I hadn't found my car yet.

my very first job i had that exact same excuse and it was true !!!!

Thank you guys for making me feel normal! LOL.

I was talking to a coworker the other day and I was saying how I was always late for Wal-Mart but with this job, my husband kicks me out the door. She thought I meant we were having relationship troubles. Uh...nope. He about literally kicks me out. LOL. It bugs him (and his mom) that I'm so slow at leaving.

I turned up in my slippers - only noticed as I trod on the sharp strip sealing the security lodge doorway. This didn't make me late coz I just went home - I have to work in reinforced boots. I was very stressed that day.



This isn't an AD/HD excuse. I went out to my car to find that there was absolutely NO CHARGE AT ALL in the battery (a relay had stuck open) so I couldn't even 'bump' start it. Fairy snuff, just get the jump leads and the spare battery I just happen to have and jump start that sucker. Errrrrrrrrrrr.

This is a German car. They were quite confident that back-ups were not going to be needed. So the battery is under the floor of the luggage space. Again, fairy snuff. But the hatch for the load bay has an electric lock.

No. Mechanical. Backup.

So there I was at five in the morning trying to get at the battery under the floor RIGHT AT THE BACK of the luggage bay in a sports car with a very low roof and me being quite large. And it was freezing. And my meds hadn't kicked in yet. It's a hatchback so the rear seats fold down - but with it being a sports car these seats are decorative and barely fold down at all. So if I have the passenger seat tilted forward I can squeeze into the rear seat area (room for two shopping bags only) and stuff myself into the luggage bay with the very low and sloping roof and just about reach into the well the battery is in with one hand. And I've cricked my neck. And it's freezing and I cant wear gloves. And I'm late (docked pay) and miserable and cursing German sodding engineers for being so arrogant.

So eventually the clips go on (owwwwww). I crank the ignition wawawawa. Wawawa. Wawah. Wa .W. CRAP! Nearly no charge in it.

Amazingly I have another old battery and another set of jump leads. Dig them out of the garage (with the fully working but not legal spare car in it to make it harder work) and attach those.

Hurrah. We have a working engine. The radiator fan is on (so obviously the fault). Oh goody. I drive to work with all the batteries and jump leads, park up and then, in complete darkness, have to go into the engine compartment to unplug the relay that turns on the fan.

So I'm late. I've already done a days work and I'm filthy and have a cricked neck and a mega mood on.

And later, when I went to the specialist garage that services expensive german sports cars, they sold me a new relay. Hurrah!

Turns out that it wasn't the relay after all and I've bought a £120 (about $200US) red herring - it was the temperature sender (cost £10) and they won't have used parts back. ****!

How about this one. I had a new girlfriend and an afternoon shift on a saturday. So we had a late breakfast in leisure and pottered around the house showing her my crazy stuff. Just before I was about to leave we were looking at my gramophone. It's a beauty. About five feet tall and solid mahogany with doors underneath for the built in wooden speaker horn. I have a few 78s so obviously she has to play one so she can play with the crank and big ol' tone arm and variable speed controller.

So she lifts the HUGE solid mahogany lid onto it's brass stay. A record goes on the platter. The crank is cranked. The needle goes on and we have scratchy 20's music for about 30 seconds before the clockwork runs out.

I spy that the stay isn't quite secure and reach in to fasten it properly just as girlfriend starts cranking again. The movement loosens the stay and I whip my arm out of the jaws of death. Notice I said 'arm'.

Whallop! The heavy lid lands on my wrist. Owwwwwwwwwwww. Wuh.
It instantly swells to about double it's usual size. And it's pulsating. I can't go in (manual handling job) so phone in that I've damaged my wrist.

A few months later I'm off sick. This is my probationary year and I've lost a shift with the slipper episode and another with the swollen wrist and they run a 'three strikes' regime. So there I am in a disciplinary meeting telling them that I'd turned up for work in my slippers and damaged my wrist in a freak gramophone incident.

Would you believe that ****?




Followers of the planetdave story know that my supervisor has Aspergers. Every year (usually about July) he would have a grandmother 'die' and a week off. Seven years running.
He got away with it because they didn't keep notes of why someone had compassionate leave and he made sure a different manager dealt with it each year (Aspergers are good at this sort of thing).

And then his remaining grandmother was murdered :eek:. So he goes to the duty manager and tells him his grandmother has died. And the manager looks at him. And he says 'I was on duty when your granny died a couple of years back. And I also remember another granny several years back. Are you pulling my plonker?'


Oh how we laughed about that one in the section. Which one applies more, 'hoist by his own petard' or 'boy who cried wolf'?

I'm always late for work anyways, I'm just lucky that my boss doesn't say anything.

Excuses, excuses, excuses...

-I had a bad case of diarrhea
-I had 'girl' issues
-My dog threw up and I had to clean it and make sure he was okay
-My dog ran out the door as I was leaving and I had to chase him down (both dog stories are true .. and my dog is wicked fast!)
-I was rear-ended in the parking lot and was exchanging information with the dude who hit me
-I missed the bus (true story)
-I overslept
-There was a power outage in my house overnight and it reset my alarm clock
-I couldn't find a parking spot
-My appointment at x place ran longer than expected
-Sorry I'm late, can I get you a coffee?
-I was throwing up all morning, I might be pregnant
-I had to finish and hand in a school assignment
-The traffic was AWFUL!!
-My car got stuck in my driveway because of all the snow, and the tow truck wouldn't risk trying to pull me out (true story)
-My car battery died, and I had to wait for a friend to give me a boost

I was late for a final exam at uni and had to use the classc excuse "my dog ate it" but it was true. I'd left all of my research and term papers all over the floor and eventually passed out on the pile at around 5am, to wake up at 7am and have to be at uni for 8.30, only to find my dog sat directly infront of me, looking at me with a half shredded term paper hanging out of his mouth.
I had to re-type the whole thing, it took me forever... I've backed up all of my work since that day =]

I was late for a final exam at uni and had to use the classc excuse "my dog ate it" but it was true. I'd left all of my research and term papers all over the floor and eventually passed out on the pile at around 5am, to wake up at 7am and have to be at uni for 8.30, only to find my dog sat directly infront of me, looking at me with a half shredded term paper hanging out of his mouth.
I had to re-type the whole thing, it took me forever... I've backed up all of my work since that day =]

Did they believe you? LOL. Sounds like something that would happen to me.

I was almost late yesterday because I was doing a fun question-and-answer thing on MySpace. Boy was that long! I love those things. I'll post it to a blog and maybe other people will do it too.

My car wouldn't start (until I put the key into the ignition)...:eek:...

Had a hard time getting the dog outside

Stubbed my toe

My clothes didn't get dry because the electricity went off because of the storm...

Hmm, better not reveal anymore... I might need to use them someday...:D

Oh, here's one...

I was assisting the local CIA... on a secret mission... and didn't get home until late last night... (yeah, I know, not believable... but no more than "I had an ADD or ADHD moment).

I was late for a final exam at uni and had to use the classc excuse "my dog ate it" but it was true. I'd left all of my research and term papers all over the floor and eventually passed out on the pile at around 5am, to wake up at 7am and have to be at uni for 8.30, only to find my dog sat directly infront of me, looking at me with a half shredded term paper hanging out of his mouth.
I had to re-type the whole thing, it took me forever... I've backed up all of my work since that day =]

My dog chewed on my flashdrive, but luckily, I had an extra flashdrive and had already backed up (I use GoodSync) on my hard-drive... So it wasn't a total loss... So now, I keep my flashdrive thingys OUT of the dog's reach (in my purse).

"I got lost on the way here"

Yeah so, I do get lost on the way to work sometimes! :(



Ha! I've done that a couple of times. I'm always late. I mostly blame it on my kids now, but I was always late long before I ever had kids.

Mixed up the days of the week once or twice.

(The corollary, and perhaps more embarrassing thing, is that I have gone to work on the wrong day).

(I'm not a complete dope; my schedule varies from day to day with absolutely no pattern)

It was a super crowded bus, people packed in like sardines, and all of a sudden a woman is hysterically screaming. Her purse had been stolen by a guy who had gotten off at the previous stop. The bus driver pulls over and waits for the cops. We're not close enough to walk the rest of the way, nor are there any other buses we could transfer to, it was a desolate stretch on the way to the airport - we're just stuck. . .

Years ago, I had a job that I was chronically late to (I was always going out to clubs, ending up staying out too late, and then not able to wake up when the alarm went off - one time I woke up an hour late and found that I'd actually unplugged the alarm clock AND thrown it across the room).

Anyway, one morning I woke up and realized I should have been at work about a half-hour before. I dove for the phone and started dialing my supervisor's number, but halfway through realized I had no excuses left. None. I'd used them all up. The well was completely dry.

So I put down the phone, took my time getting ready, took a leisurely walk to work, and strolled in. My boss is like "where were you - we were worried about you," but also obviously really expasperated and P.O.'d.

I gave her this look of total innocence and surprise, and said "today's Wednesday. I told you I'd be late today."

She looks over at her calendar board where she keeps track of people's time off, and says, very slowly, "Oh, I guess I forgot to write it down." The she apologized to ME.

It was totally priceless.

Always tell the truth. You can't buy credibility.

Most of my reasons for being late for work revolve around being a parent. Kids are sick, kids are stubborn and refused to eat breakfast, get dressed, get on the bus. . . kids forgot their lunch/homework/library book etc. ad nauseum

I have called in a few times with a case of the 26 ounce flu.

Locked the keys in the car, locked the keys in the house, lost the keys, forgot the keys. . . eh you know the drill.

One time I was sea kayaking with my brother, and the weather turned on us for 2 days, we could not cross the strait to our car, 5 miles away. Lucky, my boss was a sea kayaker, and was glad to see me back safe.

Thought of another one... I took a turn thinking it was a short cut and it wasn't:eek::o! Silly me...:D