I once worked for a company that didn't have a shred of sympathy for tardy employees. The workday began at 8 a.m. and if you sauntered in a minute later past the manager guarding the door with clipboard in hand, you were considered late and it went on your record.

After I was clocked in at 8:02 one morning and 8:03 a week later, they gave me a talking to. One more slip and I'd be toast. The treatment seemed harsh and considering I often stayed after closing time, unfair. It was, however, character-building.

Even though I had freeway traffic as the excuse for my transgression, the truth is that some days I simply did not give myself enough time to get there to fit their rules. I admit, today I am a nut about being on time for anything. I expect the same of others.

And I am constantly disappointed.

One in 10 workers polled in a recent CareerBuilder.com survey said they arrive late to work at least once a week and 24 percent said they're late at least once a month. But what's even more distressing is to hear the preposterous excuses for not being on time.

While most cited things you'd expect — traffic, getting kids ready for school, falling back asleep, forgetting something, feeling sick or losing keys, one in five admitted to making up excuses. Thirty-five percent of managers said most of the time they don't believe the excuses.

I understand that stuff happens from time to time or sometimes you just don't plan well, and that if you are late, the tendency is to not tell the truth for fear of getting in trouble. But too many people actually expect to get away with their lies.

Being chronically late can represent a larger issue such as resentment toward a boss, even passive-aggressive behavior, says psychotherapist Paula Badget Baylor.

But lying about it, for most people, is done out of a sense of self-preservation, says David Shulman, author of the forthcoming book, "From Hire to Liar: The Role of Deception in the Workplace."

When you're late, you disappoint others, he says, and rather than confront that, people lie thinking that "doing so offers a better chance of staying out of trouble than telling the truth does."

No doubt I'll get mail about how employers lie and people fear for their jobs and that's why they lie.

But that doesn't solve the dilemma.

Wouldn't it be simpler to just be on time and tell the truth?

Send questions to Andrea Kay at 2692 Madison Road, No. 133, Cincinnati, Ohio 45208 or at andrea@andreakay.com.