Late For Work? 1 In 4 Employees Say At Least Once A Month, Cite Traffic, Oversleeping

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — If you're reading this, you were probably late to work today - and you're not alone.

About 1 in 4 employees are regularly late to their job, with nearly 30 percent of workers admitting to being tardy at least once a month, according to a new CareerBuilder survey.

Another 16 percent say being late is a weekly occurrence for them.

The survey of more than 2,600 hiring and human resources managers and about 3,400 workers from various industries found the number of people who are late on a weekly basis is up about 3 percentage points from last year.

KNX 1070's Pete Demetriou found a few people who defied the averages, including one woman who claimed she runs late for work 90 percent of the time.

The main reason? "Traffic," she said.

Some other reasons cited for employee tardiness: oversleeping (32 percent), bad weather (26 percent), too tired to get out of bed (25 percent) and procrastination (17 percent).

And then there are the more exotic excuses.

Employers shared some of the most unusual reasons they've heard for an employee being late, ranging from medical issues with a pet turtle to one employee claiming to have been locked in a closet by his mother.

And then there are those who say being late to their job is pretty much out of the question.

"Never," said one woman. "I teach high school so you can't really be late."

But do employers actually care?

According to the survey, not always: 29 percent say they have no problem with the occasional late arrival, as long as it doesn't become a pattern (down from 33 percent last year), and 18 percent say it doesn't matter if employees are punctual as long as they can be productive when they get to work (up from 16 percent last year).