While traffic and lack of sleep are the most commonly used as an excuse to be late for work, according to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, a wide range of excuses "unusual" - from a cat with hiccups to think that he had touched Lottery - also appeared among the workers as an excuse for not arriving on time.

Creativity may be needed given the large number of times you need excuses: 16 percent of workers are late once a week or more, the study found, while nearly 30 percent arrive late at least once a month.

Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, warns against this behavior.

    "Punctuality - or the lack thereof - can have a strong impact on how your boss perceives your commitment, reliability and performance,"

Late, as usual, can have serious consequences. More than a third of those surveyed have fired a member of staff for not being at work on time.

The most common excuses for being late to work are: traffic, lack of sleep, bad weather, problems with taking children to school, public transportation delays, the couple, pets and television.

Some of the most outrageous justifications given to the heads are:

    My cat had hiccups.
    I was distracted watching TV.
    I thought I had won the lottery (there was not played).
    My wife was angry and I cut the thread of the phone charger, so to not charge the alarm did not ring.
    I believe that is what it takes to get to the office should be counted as working hours.
    Sorry, a fox stole my car keys.
    The leg was stuck between subway train and the platform (turned out to be true).
    Not too late, I have no intention of going to work before 9 (start time were 8).
    I'm late because I had a job interview with another company.
    I had to answer a personal call from the state governor (who turned out to be true).

The study was based on surveys of more than 3,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals and  7780 workers in the U.S.