People can make up insane excuses to explain why the come to work late

Everybody was in a situation when they were late for work. To tell the truth, the situation is bad but not critical. The only problem is to find a perfect excuse.

Here's the situation. So you went to the ball game last night. Your team won and you stayed out a little bit later than you should have. Fast-forward six or seven hours and you're still poking along nowhere near being ready to leave for work. What do you do?

A. Tell your boss the truth and assure him this is a one-time thing.

B. Cook up an elaborate tale that involves checking the morning's traffic conditions, implicating your children and cursing the inventor of orange juice.

If you tend to suffer from a lack of punctuality, you're not alone. One-in-ten workers -- 13 percent -- say they arrive late to work at least once a week and 24 percent say they arrive late at least once a month.

What are the biggest causes of workplace tardiness? Here's what workers said:

- Twenty-seven percent of workers blamed traffic.

- Ten percent pointed to getting their kids ready for school or day care.

- Eleven percent said falling back asleep was the main culprit.

- Other popular reasons: forgetting something at home, feeling sick and misplacing house or car keys.

One-in-five admit to making up fake excuses to explain their tardiness. Hiring managers provided the following 10 examples of the most unusual excuses employees offered for arriving late to work:

1. I dreamed that I was fired, so I didn't bother to get out of bed.

2. I had to take my cat to the dentist.

3. I went all the way to the office and realized I was still in my pajamas and had to go home to change.

4. I saw that you weren't in the office, so I went out looking for you.

5. I couldn't find the right tie, so I had to wait for the stores to open so I could buy one.

6. My son tried to flush our ferret down the toilet and I needed to tend to the ferret.

7. I ran over a goat.

8. I stopped for a bagel sandwich, the store was robbed and the police required everyone to stay for questioning.

9. A bee flew in my car and attacked me and I had to pull over.

10. I wet my pants and went home to change.