1 in 5 Canadians late for work once a week: Survey

By Rebecca Lindell, Postmedia News February 23, 2011


Um . . . the dog ate my BlackBerry? . . . Would you believe a prostitute stole my car keys?


Those are just two of the odder excuses Canadians used last year to explain their late arrival at work, according to a new survey that suggests nearly one in five employees showed up tardy at least once a week.


Nineteen per cent of workers surveyed admitted they were late at least once a week in 2010, according to numbers released Wednesday by CareerBuilder.ca.


The previous year, the number had been 17 per cent, although the difference falls within the margin of error for the survey.


Another 11 per cent of respondents said they had been late more than twice a week.


Lack of sleep and traffic topped the list of excuses workers gave their managers, the survey said.


Fifteen per cent of tardy respondents blamed public transportation and 12 per cent said the weather had slowed them down.


Other common excuses including getting kids out the door, Internet use or their spouse.


Some employees got more creative.


Hiring managers reported hearing these outrageous reasons for delays: The dog ate my BlackBerry. A prostitute stole my car keys. I forgot it was a workday. I ran over myself with the company truck.


And one employee claimed a bear stopped his car, broke his window and tried to grab the occupants.


"While workers will sometimes be late due to circumstances out of their control, they need to be aware of their companies' tardiness policies," Rosemary Haefner, vice-president of human resources for CareerBuilder, a job-hunting website, said in a statement.


"Regardless of the reason, workers who are running late should always be honest with their manager."


The response to tardiness varied among managers, but 30 per cent of respondents said they have fired an employee for being late.


The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive among 227 Canadian employers and 550 Canadian full-time employees in the private sector between Nov. 15 and Dec. 2, 2010.


Some of the results were taken from a subset of the overall survey, leading to margins of error of plus or minus 6.5 and 4.18 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.


CareerBuilder.ca is owned by Gannett Co., Inc., the Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company and Microsoft Corp.


rlindell@postmedia.com


Twitter.com/rebeccalindell



Read more: http://www.canada.com/technology/Canadians+late+work+once+week+Survey/4331621/story.html#ixzz1EoejbhHK

I'm late everday! :D

I am trying to work on coming in on time. :-( I have even addressed the issue with my patrons but they do not care as long as I get the work done. It makes it that much harder to work on my tardiness. :(

Goes to show, it's time to change work hours.

I am never late for work, or pretty much anything else. Tardiness in others is one of my greatest pet peeves.

If something, or someone, is important to you, you should show respect and be there on time. Or early. :)

If something, or someone, is important to you, you should show respect and be there on time. Or early. :)


Naaaah.

:lol: I have some friends who are constantly late. I had to wait once at a restaurant for thirty minutes! Doesn't help that I was 10 minutes early ...

I am never late for work, or pretty much anything else. Tardiness in others is one of my greatest pet peeves.

If something, or someone, is important to you, you should show respect and be there on time. Or early. :)

+1. :cheers:

I figured everyone would be late to work at least once a week. I almost never show up on time on mondays, and I'm one of the better ones.

I'm always early for EVERYTHING.

I'm late for EVERYTHING! I always get stuck in traffic, or get the delayed train. Doesn't help that I leave everything to the last minute, but I am generally quite a well organised person.

Fashionably late, I say :)

I am usually on time with friends ;-)

I am consistently late because the TTC sucks.

I come from a long line of people who are consistently early. My mom was 3 hours early for a meeting a few years ago. It was an important meeting, of course, but still a bit much.

I confess to generally being a teensy bit late for most rendezvous or work.

I have the odd distinction of leaving late from home and arriving early to work/class, etc.

Of course I tend to drive really really fast. :colgate:

Everyone knows that "Vancouver time" means 15-30 mins after your actual appointment time. :D

People, people. Best excuse ever. "I had to take a dump and my toilet got clogged so I spent [insert time here] plunging it."

People, people. Best excuse ever. "I had to take a dump and my toilet got clogged so I spent [insert time here] plunging it."

I was ACTUALLY late for a group meeting because of that once, I kid you not.

I am consistently late because the TTC sucks.

Agreed. I am never a tardy person, and usually I arrive a few minutes early, but lately the TTC has been making that harder and harder.

I had a good laugh waiting for the 501 Queen streetcar tonight. Since they introduced that text messaging schedule for the streetcars, I key in my stop number and get this "501 W 16min / 501 W 17min / 501 W 18min /501 W 20min...

You are in TO?

I come from a long line of people who are consistently early. My mom was 3 hours early for a meeting a few years ago. It was an important meeting, of course, but still a bit much.

Not really, if she wanted time to get prepared for it.

You are in TO?

Yes sir.

I'm usually early for everything. Work, usually 20 minutes or so because of transit. Wednesday's I have appointments so I'm allowed to be late for work then... usually just 15 minutes late.

Now, if I'm travelling I'm usually at the airport like 3 hours early just because I'm always freaked out that I'm going to miss my flight... plus I have to chain smoke before getting on the plane otherwise I'm freaked out.

I got late many times because it was full at St. George Station.

Also, the train stops in between the stations far too many times. Then, it idles at one busy station (Dundas West).

I apologize to my students way too often.

Are you a teacher?