Brain Teasers
Late for work
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
A man lives one block from where he works. He needs to be at work by 9:30 AM. He sets his alarm for 9 AM, and gets to work at 9:30 AM. When he gets there, his boss fires him for being late. The boss and the man both had accurate clocks. What happened?
Show Answer
What Next?
View a Similar Brain Teaser...
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
Solve a Puzzle
Comments
Ifthe man go to work on 9.30 am he wouldn't reach there in just a second.
Jan 04, 2002
Is it really accurate to say he got to work at 9:30 AM if it was actually 10:30 AM at the time zone in which he works?
No it was 9:30 in the timezone where he lives and 10:30 in the timezone where he works... I know several people who work in avideo arcade called TimeZone so this is a big laugh for me... yes I AM easily amused. 
oh the things we do.... 
i thought he got there on the wrong day
nice work!
nice work!
WOW!! How random is that??
cool teaser.
cool teaser.
I was thinking daylight savings. Nice one!
I guessed he was in a different time zone
Cool teaser
it's a great teaser, but i think that the boss was kinda mean to fire him just cause he lived in another time zone. o well
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
i agree with lucky13---that was mean of the boss, even though it didn't really happen, cuz its just a teaser.....duh! 
The answer also could have been that the man set his alarm at 9AM after 9AM of that day so he slept for just over 24hrs and he was exaxctly one day late
I like it..
i guessed that either he set his alarm 4 wrong day or daylite savings
i thought about time zone, but my idea of a watch is unfortunately my cell phone which automatically adjusts itself
I thought daylite saving which could be it too oh well good one!
lol i didnt get it... but great teaser!!
whoa thats so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i said that he was a day late too
i said that he was a day late too
Hey King Leonard I have a question! How can you say it was a great teaser if you did not even understand it? That does not make sense!
That does not make sense!
i'm guessing he meant didn't get it as in didn't get it right 
oh ya duh, sorry I'm a little slow sometimes!
ya... but isn't the day line thingy out in the middle of the pacific?!
OK there are 24 hour lines across the globe. On the mainland of USA there are three lines and four time zones which include Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern time. Listen to the TV when they announce the time. Ex. 8 pm/ 7 central. There are a few in the pacific though too.
Cool!
i got it but wouldn't he be an hour behind instead of 30min. and the boss was kinda mean
coool teaser though
coool teaser though
Easy teaser, fun though!!! 
I came up with two answers. First I thought he lived in a different time zone, but I discredited that one because I figured it would take a lot more than half an hour to get to work! Then I thought he was a full day late. At least I was originally right!
No one could have known that. There's barely any places which are like that because cities are placed So they can't do that. (so many that's )
)
ok then it could b nfl time
I guessed it right off the bat, because i live in central time zone and work in eastern time zone. If you would like to be confuzzed look at the time split in the state of Indiana, it's split all year round. I leave home at 2:30 to get to work at 4
0 it takes me 25-30 minutes to get to work.
0 it takes me 25-30 minutes to get to work. 
STUPID
only joking it was awsome
Why does it say he gets to work at 9:30? If he got to work at 9:30 then he would be on time because people tend to use the time in the place they are. You should have said he left his house at 9:27 and got to work 2 minutes later.
He could have gotten to work at 9:30 in any arbitrary time zone if it is not implied that "he gets to work at 9:30" means that it is 9:30 when he gets to work.
Follow Braingle!