Occasionally, we fail to make it to work in time. You may have good reasons for this, such as being stuck in traffic, while on other days, you may have binge-watched your favorite series. However, regardless of what delayed you, you should know the perfect excuses to give your boss and those you should totally avoid.
Best Excuses for Being Late to Work
1. “I overslept.”
If there was a competition for work excuses, then this is among the top two. This is a good and honest reason to give at the office especially when it’s your first time being late, let’s call it the “first timer’s excuse.” However, you should promise to improve on your timing henceforth. Though, if your lateness has been frequent, you should never rely on this!
2. “I had to drop of the children to school first.”
This is another valid reason you can give at the office. Even bosses arrive to work late sometimes due to this. However, based on the nature of your boss, you can tell if this will work. If you’ve noticed your boss seems to consider kids as a nuisance, you should probably come up with something else.
3. “I got stuck in traffic.”
Being stuck in traffic takes the top spot in the competition of great excuses. This happens to the best of us and is totally out of our hands. According to CareerBuilder, being late due to traffic is the most used excuse for being late to the office. If your lateness has been frequent, this is a pretty good reason.
4. “The bus broke down.”
This is not bad, it’s even great when you’ve got a fellow co-worker to corroborate your claim. But this shouldn’t be a repeated excuse, if you get late daily and complain of a broken-down bus, you might just get taken down.
5. “The subway has been closed due to unscheduled maintenance.”
If an unscheduled maintenance occurred, then it’s an honest and good excuse. However, making this up is risky as office co-workers may have even used that same route that morning! Therefore, you should only use this when that was the real cause of your delay.
Worst Excuses for Being Late to Work
1. “I was gambling all night.”
Never use this excuse in an office. It doesn’t matter whether you played poker with your friends with your friends. Or if you were home playing Blackjack games online. None of these excuses will ever work!
2. “My cat got stuck in the toilet.”
This is a top contender if you’re trying to infuriate your boss. Even if your cat was really stuck, giving this excuse also makes you appear careless. You shouldn’t risk this; rather rely on other realistic excuses.
3. “I thought Halloween was a work holiday.”
Thinking of using this as an excuse on the 1st of November? Maybe you were even thinking about going on a “Halloween trip”? Giving this excuse may get you a perpetual holiday from work. You also get to sound quite silly at the office. Never use this as an excuse.
4. “I spent the night watching movies.”
Where you had spent the night watching movies on Amazon Prime, it’s not wise to be truthful at the office. You can instead claim to have overslept, that’ll save your job compared to the latter.
5. “I tried to cut my own hair and made a horrible mess of it.”
This is no concern of the office and isn’t so good especially when your boss is bald. You should also avoid using this as an excuse at the office.
Want to get more excuses? Check out this work excuse generator from Teamweek. However, we do not guarantee that they will all work in real life.