Chronic late to work

[FireDancer]

If you are always 15 minutes late it is easily remedied...always leave 15 minutes earlier. It really is just laziness or lack of caring to not see something so easily correctable and correct it.

 

[Burnedout]

If you are always 15 minutes late it is easily remedied...always leave 15 minutes earlier. It really is just laziness or lack of caring to not see something so easily correctable and correct it.

Rocket science? Nope.

 

[disney1990]

I believe that people that are always late or always missing work never receive the "work ethic" from the parents. Both of my girls are just like DH and me, they are never late and very, very rarely call out.

I know that I am a school crossing guard. There is NO being late for work. If I am not there on time, 5 and 6 year old will trying crossing a busy road alone and I am personally responsible for their safety. Therefore, I am always early - no exceptions.

 

[amichaell]

Back when I foolishly stepped in to the world of management I had an employee who was chronically late. Now this was IT, so my people weren't exactly 9 - 5; if they were working on a problem that kept them past the end of their shift they usually stayed to fix it, so I was never hard on being late.

But one guy just abused it constantly to the point that it started to impact other employees on the team. He also never called or emailed to say he was going to be late.

It was only after I wrote him up twice pointing out that the third time meant he no longer has a job that he straightened out. Ever since then he really started to make strides in his career and is doing quite well now.

 

[ThisIsJason]

Had a student worker last spring semester who started coming in late two days a week. At first is was only a few minutes, which I will give her credit, she had to pick up a class that got out 15 minutes before she needed to work and was on the other side of campus, and her boss did ok it.

That few minutes turned into 10 minutes, then 15, then it hit 20. She asked if she could just start coming in 30 minutes late and loose the half hour a day. Her boss said it was fine. Another student worker came to us and said she was changing her time sheet after it was signed off back to the original start time, gaining an hour of pay a week. Which had gone on for 2 or 3 weeks. She lost her job and now can not have employment on campus.

 

[Laura66]

I just don't get how those of you who are chronically late can justify it! Once in a while things do happen. But to have such a blatant disregard for others that you don't even make an effort - because hey, that's just the way I am! Mindblowing,

It is beyond rude! You are implying that your life and your wants and needs are more important than anyone else. That rules don't apply to you,

And thinking it's okay to do that at work??? it's a slap in the face to those of us who do get to work - or anywhere else on time!

If I am hired to be at work form 7 to 2 - I'm there from 7 to 2. If. My kids have class from 7 to 3 then they better be there from 7 to 3. Being late to class - and work - is disrespectful to the teacher and distracting to the other students who are there, prepared and ready to learn. ( or work)

 

[Mkrop]

This is a TOTAL crock of hooey. I'm the habitually late person getting to work. About three days out of 5, I "roll in" at 8:45 am. My hours are supposed to be 8:30 am to 6 pm.

I'm also the same person here until 8 pm or later as needed to do billing for my job because the biller "doesn't know how" and refuses to learn. I run the department of one for me AND I bring in new clients all of the time.

Oh, and I was also the person her Sunday afternoon making sure everyone on the staff would be paid tomorrow because of the short week.

So don't give me that donkeypoo about us late people not putting in a solid effort.

Some reasons why I'm late:

Traffic, too cold to get out of bed, traffic, I'm on the phone with a work call at 7 am and didn't get in the shower on time, my cat was ill, didn't feel like racing into work, carbeque, breakfast meetings off-lot, traffic, I just CAN'T get here exactly at 8:30 am daily and I would be the first person in anyway...

Also, my company has a policy whereas you can get written up if you are caught talking/texting on your phone for business while driving. I'll often pull over on my way in to take a call.

I dont understand some of your reasons...some of them I get if you are on a work call then you are working, if you are at a offsite mtg than you are working I dont know what a carbeque is

But how can you justify the too cold to get out of bed, didnt feel like racing to work reasons We have all felt that way didnt make it a good reason to be late. And the traffic one befuddles me as well, just leave earlier. I know for a fact that if DS16 and I leave 5 minutes later we will get stuck behind a school bus and then that will snowball into more traffic and it taking longer and therefore DS10 will be late. So we once we learned that the hard way, we have never been late again

 

[Laura66]

When you are constantly late you are sending a subtle message to whoever you stood up that they are less important than you or whatever you were doing.

I also think it gives the impression that you aren't reliable, You can argue otherwise - but I'd bet big bucks your fellow employees and friends are thinking just that!

(Again we are not talking once in a while late here)

I had a friend who was constantly 10-30 minutes late. it was ridiculous and infringed upon my time and would set me back on all my errands. Last lunch I said - if you're more than 10 minutes late I won't be there. She thought I was joking - I wasn't! And I bet you can guess what her reaction was! She said it was uncalled for and rude and how could I do that to her. We don't socialize any more!

 

[JanaDee]

This is a TOTAL crock of hooey. I'm the habitually late person getting to work. About three days out of 5, I "roll in" at 8:45 am. My hours are supposed to be 8:30 am to 6 pm.

I'm also the same person here until 8 pm or later as needed to do billing for my job because the biller "doesn't know how" and refuses to learn. I run the department of one for me AND I bring in new clients all of the time.

Oh, and I was also the person her Sunday afternoon making sure everyone on the staff would be paid tomorrow because of the short week.

So don't give me that donkeypoo about us late people not putting in a solid effort.

Some reasons why I'm late:

Traffic, too cold to get out of bed, traffic, I'm on the phone with a work call at 7 am and didn't get in the shower on time, my cat was ill, didn't feel like racing into work, carbeque, breakfast meetings off-lot, traffic, I just CAN'T get here exactly at 8:30 am daily and I would be the first person in anyway...

I don't know whether to or .

If my 16 year old has figured out how to get places on time, grown men and women can, too.

 

[spacemountainmom]

I have worked with two chronically late or absent people and they drove me insane. I generally arrive to work with at least 20 minutes to spare so I can take care of "my business" before I am on the clock. It insures that I have enough time to put my coat and lunch away, get my water bottle filled and take care of anything else I have to so I am ready to go when my shift starts. If I am less than 20 minutes early, I feel like I am late and it messes up my whole day.

The first person was at the last school I worked at. He would be at least 5-10 minutes every day and sometimes even later. He frequently wouldn't show up at all. Our supervisor was the Assistant Principal and since she normally would not be in our work area, she had no idea what was going on. Many times no one even reported that he wasn't there to the office until we were half-way through our shift and had time to go tell them. It went on for over a year and finally he was invited to resign. The rest of us were so happy; we were so sick of having to cover for him all of the time.

I now work at a different school and one of the lunch monitors was chronically tardy or absent. His two excuses were that he has some disorder where he can't wake up or that he would get caught at the train crossing. It didn't normally cause any problems for me since I don't work in the lunchroom, but he would sometimes sub for me when I needed to take time off. He completely forgot to show up when he agreed to sub for another co-worker. The funniest part of the whole thing is that his wife is a teacher in our building. It went on for two years when they finally told him that he was not welcome back this fall.

I agree that people need to be on time and accountable. If you are chronically late, YOU need to adjust YOUR timetable. We give detention to students that are tardy, it would be nice if we could give it to the supposed adults too.

 

[LSmith]

This is a TOTAL crock of hooey. I'm the habitually late person getting to work. About three days out of 5, I "roll in" at 8:45 am. My hours are supposed to be 8:30 am to 6 pm.

I'm also the same person here until 8 pm or later as needed to do billing for my job because the biller "doesn't know how" and refuses to learn. I run the department of one for me AND I bring in new clients all of the time.

Oh, and I was also the person her Sunday afternoon making sure everyone on the staff would be paid tomorrow because of the short week.

So don't give me that donkeypoo about us late people not putting in a solid effort.

Some reasons why I'm late:

Traffic, too cold to get out of bed, traffic, I'm on the phone with a work call at 7 am and didn't get in the shower on time, my cat was ill, didn't feel like racing into work, carbeque, breakfast meetings off-lot, traffic, I just CAN'T get here exactly at 8:30 am daily and I would be the first person in anyway...

Also, my company has a policy whereas you can get written up if you are caught talking/texting on your phone for business while driving. I'll often pull over on my way in to take a call.

Are you joking? I don't know any place of employment where most of those excuses would fly even once.

 

[dawnball]

If you are always 15 minutes late it is easily remedied...always leave 15 minutes earlier. It really is just laziness or lack of caring to not see something so easily correctable and correct it.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I take the train to work. I take a specific train in the morning and if it's on time, I get to work 5 minutes after the hour. Most days, the train runs ~ 5 minutes late. I can't take a train 10 minutes earlier, I can only take a train an hour earlier, and that means I leave before my daughter leaves for school.

Getting to work right on the hour would amount to an unpaid 50 minutes for me. I do it when there's a need, but if that was my expected daily schedule, I'd find a different job.

 

[FireDancer]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I take the train to work. I take a specific train in the morning and if it's on time, I get to work 5 minutes after the hour. Most days, the train runs ~ 5 minutes late. I can't take a train 10 minutes earlier, I can only take a train an hour earlier, and that means I leave before my daughter leaves for school.

Getting to work right on the hour would amount to an unpaid 50 minutes for me. I do it when there's a need, but if that was my expected daily schedule, I'd find a different job.

This is one of the reasons why I always ask anyone applying for my department if they have a car. An applicant would have to shine way above everyone else for me to consider them if they had to rely on public transportation to get to work. It is one thing to choose to use it but if using it got you here late more then every so often I'd tell them they need to find another way to get here or find another job.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Cant your hours be adjusted by 1/2 hour then? If youre always arriving at 9:05am instead of 9:00am (for example), why not just start at 930am so that youre at least a bit early instead of late all the time? Of course that would mean you'd be finishing at 530pm instead of 5.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I take the train to work. I take a specific train in the morning and if it's on time, I get to work 5 minutes after the hour. Most days, the train runs ~ 5 minutes late. I can't take a train 10 minutes earlier, I can only take a train an hour earlier, and that means I leave before my daughter leaves for school.

Getting to work right on the hour would amount to an unpaid 50 minutes for me. I do it when there's a need, but if that was my expected daily schedule, I'd find a different job.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Cant your hours be adjusted by 1/2 hour then? If youre always arriving at 9:05am instead of 9:00am (for example), why not just start at 930am so that youre at least a bit early instead of late all the time? Of course that would mean you'd be finishing at 530pm instead of 5.

This. We have a gal here who comes in 15 minutes "late" every day by design as it works better for her daughter's school schedule. But, she also stays late every night. We all know it and that is her schedule.

But, this is a lot different than someone who is expected to be at work at 8, but is never there at 8.

 

[Rose23]

Anyone have one of these people at work? I have a PT gig and the administrative assistant is constantly late. Of the 3 days a week I work she calls at 9am for at least TWO of them in a "panic", stammering apologies about how she overslept/clock never went off/traffic is backed up (in our insanely rural town??), and will be in 20 minutes. It was kind of funny at first but I've been here for a year now and it's lost its funny.

Today was a winner. I came in to open the office and NOBODY else was here. There are always two of us to open up at 8:30. With the weather as nasty as it is in the east today I thought maybe they had issued a delayed opening or a closure and forgotten to call me. I had left work early yesterday because I was sick, and today I actually feel worse but i had a nagging feeling I needed to be here. So I dragged myself in. Thank goodness I did because all the other people who normally work with me are on vacation or had asked the day off...except the administrative assistant. Well she calls at 9am (we are supposed to be in at 8:30) with the faux panic "I'm so sorry I'm so sorry blah blah blah!". And when she comes in, at 9:15 she comes running up to me "OMG I thought you were going to be staying home sick today! Thank goodness you were here!"

I told her I almost did call in, until my spidey sense kicked in, and that I was still sick (upper resp). The other person working today came in at 9...and she just got over pnuemonia two weeks ago. So when the boss comes into the office and gives Ms. Alwayslate the long hairy eye, the AA grabs me and the other employee and tells the boss "We're sick...all THREE of us (fake cough), and we still came in!"

Ick. She's off my Christmas card list LOL. I guess it's really the boss's fault for not nipping it in the bud. I just hate people's laziness in action. She has NO children, no other job (this is my second job. I work full-time outside of this)...no health issues. No reason for the chronic lateness other than she is a space cadet, scatterbrained and disorganized.

So who else has one of these gems in their office?

Jennasis, her chronic tardiness may end up working in your favor. You are showing your reliability and value to the company and they may end up hiring you in to a full-time permanent position to enable you to just work one job.

Years ago I worked temp for a billion dollar company that did not want to address an issue with the administrative assistant that had chronic tardiness and absentee problems. If she was more than 30 minutes late, she actually would not show up at all. She worked for the COO and he was milk-toast. They called me in to work temp for the COO on one of those mornings that she called in and I became his band-aid. Each day I showed up early, made sure the coffee was made, conference rooms were ready, copier filled with paper, etc. After a few days, the COO and other senior executives saw this and they offered me a permanent job as an administrative assistant within days that paid very well with fabulous benefits.

Be encouraged. It will work itself out. Stay strong.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[Poohforyou]

This is a TOTAL crock of hooey. I'm the habitually late person getting to work. About three days out of 5, I "roll in" at 8:45 am. My hours are supposed to be 8:30 am to 6 pm.

I'm also the same person here until 8 pm or later as needed to do billing for my job because the biller "doesn't know how" and refuses to learn. I run the department of one for me AND I bring in new clients all of the time.

Oh, and I was also the person her Sunday afternoon making sure everyone on the staff would be paid tomorrow because of the short week.

So don't give me that donkeypoo about us late people not putting in a solid effort.

Some reasons why I'm late:

Traffic, too cold to get out of bed, traffic, I'm on the phone with a work call at 7 am and didn't get in the shower on time, my cat was ill, didn't feel like racing into work, carbeque, breakfast meetings off-lot, traffic, I just CAN'T get here exactly at 8:30 am daily and I would be the first person in anyway...

Also, my company has a policy whereas you can get written up if you are caught talking/texting on your phone for business while driving. I'll often pull over on my way in to take a call.

Too cold to get out of bed in southern California? That's worth a pass just for having the guts to actually use it.

 

[Minnesota!]

I often find the people who travel the furthest to work are NOT the chronically late people.

Sort of invalidated everyone else's excuses pretty quickly.

Now granted, traffic can indeed get messed up WAY worse than "normal" and make everyone late. But if its a regular occurance, the problem is not traffic. The problem is you're leaving later than you should.

Agreed! We have 1 in our department who is ALWAYS late!! Every single day. She lives 5 miles from work - the closest of all of us. The others - whose mileage varies from 6 (me) to 40 - are never late.

If you are always 15 minutes late it is easily remedied...always leave 15 minutes earlier. It really is just laziness or lack of caring to not see something so easily correctable and correct it.

One would think this is an easy solution. Apparently the chronically late cannot grasp it.

And yes, this is my BIGGEST pet peeve. So disrespectful and rude and thoughtless. At the very height of bad manners..

 

[sunnyday123]

We work hourly, and there's no overtime, so any time we work more than 7 hours a day, we are unpaid. Actually, the 8-3 hours are pretty arbitrary, but that's what we report to the business office because it makes the bookkeeping easier. (I know the middle school crew works 8:15-3:15 but also reports their hours as 8-3.) We don't see kids until 8:30, and my last class ends at 2:35 and then I have hall duty from 2:40 until 3 (or until the busses leave… it's probably later than 3 at least once a week). I'd rather stay late to do planning for the next day so I have time to finish it all rather than try to get if finished in that half-hour in the morning. Often in the morning there isn't time to get all the photocopying, etc., done before students arrive at 8:30. HOWEVER… it bothers me if I am not there at 8, as this is what we officially report, so I am trying to be better about it. I just have to stop trying to squeeze in little things in the morning and just get ready for work!

Well, there WOULD be time to do copying before they arrived if you arrived on time!

 

[dawnball]

Cant your hours be adjusted by 1/2 hour then? If youre always arriving at 9:05am instead of 9:00am (for example), why not just start at 930am so that youre at least a bit early instead of late all the time? Of course that would mean you'd be finishing at 530pm instead of 5.

Like I said, if that was my expected daily schedule (arriving and departing on the hour), I'd find another job.

I wasn't claiming to be perpetually late - I was answering the claim that it's easy enough to move your arrival time by 15 minutes. My husband can't easily move his arrival time by 15 minutes either, because it pushes him into rush hour and he'd have to leave home an hour earlier to get to the office 15 minutes earlier. He can't easily get home 15 minutes earlier either.