CHICAGO, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Heavy traffic, bad weather and an attack by a bear were among the excuses U.S. workers gave for being late in 2012, a survey found.
In the survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers and more than 3,900 workers, 26 percent of workers indicated they were late to work once a month, CareerBuilder said Friday.
Sixteen percent indicated they were late for work once a week or more.
The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive.
Excuses for being late ranged from the pedestrian to the outrageous, CareerBuilder said.
The most often blamed is traffic -- 31 percent of workers indicated traffic forced their tardiness.
Lack of sleep, child-care hassles, disruptive weather and slow public transportation were also commonly cited, CareerBuilder said.
And then there were these:
-- Angry wife froze keys to the truck inside a glass of water.
-- The cement duck on the lawn needed a raincoat.
-- Drove to a previous employer by mistake.
-- Helped a stranger deliver a baby on the way to work
The excuse of the bear attacking a commuter's car, it turns out, came with photographic evidence of the marauding bruin, CareerBuilder said.
The results of the survey include a margin of error of up to plus and minus 1.92 percentage points.
