So none of us think the idea of punctuality is some new age holistic corporate-speak, then? Just the OP, hmm. Interesting how he’s returned to the thread to discuss it.
Those who claim they regularly have problems with sleep which forces them to be late for work…have you sought medical help? If not, quit carping.
Actually, I assumed the former situation when making the “bite me” post. However, I will go a step further, and say that if an employee is chronically late, and it **does ** affect their co-workers, and management, knowing this, has failed to do anything about it… well, you might consider redirecting, or at least dividing, your anger. The software dude is, in fact rude, and it’s perfectly correct to be angry with him. But do keep in mind that his “presumed worth in the world” (or at least in the company) relative to the rest of you, **has ** been evaluated, and clearly decided upon.
Speaking only for myself, yes. They can’t actually fix everything, you know.
Yes, I have sought medical help. There is no magic pill that doesn’t have harmful side effects that are worse. If it came down to and actual choice between my job and taking the pills, I might opt to take the pills but it would probably be a bad decision, liking taking steroids to maintain a sports career.
As I said, I am lucky in the company allows for my problem. Thankfully in my field, being late is rarely an imposition to others.
When I am late it is in the 5-10 minute range mostly but probably once a month it is a longer oversleep.
I tried the Alarm clock on the other side of the room today and it worked today. I was able to put myself together more leisurely and without the mad dash I usually employ and I made it to work 10 minutes early. I’ll see how this works for the next few weeks. I might pick up a second alarm clock for myself that will go off later. I got to sleep by 1 AM last night and I can foresee a 3am night where I will get up, kill the clock and lay back down without remembering.
Brain Wreck: I’ll look into a sunrise alarm clock. I am afraid it might not work; I got used to being night shift at sea when I was in the navy and light barely affects my sleep.
Xema, thanks again. If this works out I owe you at least a beer and I will feel quite silly about forgetting this trick.
Jim
The trick with alarm clocks is to put them far enough out of reach that you have to get out of bed and walk across the room to turn it off. It works.
oops. I just found that in your last post. D’oh!
You make a good point. Management does share some of the resposibility for this and that pisses me off too. By the way, I don’t care if he strolls in late to work on the days that we don’t have the morning meeting and I’m not saying that he should be fired. He’s very valuable to the company but he does treat his co-workers with disrespect.
No problem, can’t compete with the fact I use to use this method and forgot about it.
Jim
Late guy here. Usually 5 minutes or so, 2-3 times a week.
My thoughts on this matter are simple.
I don’t get paid for time I arrive early, nor do I get any credit for being early.
I work “late” nearly every day (usually 20-30 min late each day), so in the end, the company I work for gets a net of 15-25 minutes of extra work out of me each day. I also do a lot of work “off hours” usually beginning at 10PM (I work 8:30ish - 5:15ish daily).
Those folks that proclaim to be in “early” every day, are the ones that have their stuff packed and are ready to leave 15 minutes before “quitting time.” They’ll generally be the folks that refuse to work late, or take a call (page) at home.
If I work for someone that is nasty about “on time”, then I generally begin to refuse to work late, or take on off-hours work. It usually only takes one or two occasions that they want something done, and can’t find someone to do it before they see my side of the story.
All that said, if folks show up late every day, and affect others work, AND insist on leaving exactly on time every day, then they have an issue. If I’m willing to be flexible on the “back end”, I expect employers/co-workers to be flexible with me on the “front end.”
Just my experience however. I also come from a long line of “late arrivers”, but I’m the “least late” of my clan.
-Butler
I got in this morning at 7:40, left at 5:30.
Of course, it’s important to note that just because I get there early doesn’t mean I work early. Just sitting at my desk doesn’t mean work to me - I get there, check my email, browse here for a few minutes, talk with coworkers. I need that little extra time in the morning to clear my head enough to focus properly on my work.
Another “chronic latester” checking in (several days after the OP, appropriately enough :)). My experiences and feelings are mostly the same as those in various other postings. Firstly, I can’t deny that being constantly late is selfish. I know this is the case because I hate waiting myself - it’s a waste of time. If I have a bus or train to catch, it’s extremely rare for me to be at the station more than 5 minutes before the scheduled departure time. And yes, this means that sometimes I miss it - but this very rarely has an impact on others, as I don’t travel for work.
So, does this help me to consider others’ needs and encourage me to turn up on time? Well, I’m getting better - in my teens I probably didn’t realise this. Now that I do, I’m making a conscious effort to improve, by planning backwards from the time I need to be there. However, even this doesn’t work sometimes - I’ll often allow an extra half-hour in the mornings to wake up properly, read a book, whatever. In the event, I’ll read the book for half an hour, then a little bit longer to finish the chapter, and all my slack has gone. At that point I might say to myself: “well, I don’t really need to have a shower, I haven’t really got the time now.” However, since I allowed 10 minutes in my schedule for having a shower, I’ll then read for another 10 minutes!
My problem is, despite all my parents’ exhortations (and they’re good parents, too - this is squarely my fault), I can’t get ready first and relax after. I like to relax first, and then get ready in a mad rush (the adrenalin kick that has been mentioned). Or, like right now, I prefer to surf the Dope first, and then do my exam revision - with the same results: I’ll procrastinate until I’m too tired to do any work, or it’s time to go out to keep another appointment (which I may well be late for, citing: "I had too much work to do :smack: ).
When I used to work at a supermarket, I was regularly 1-5 minutes late for my shift. Amazingly, I was very rarely reprimanded for this, and since my co-workers never got angry with me for making them stay longer, I assume management just let them go when scheduled and had the checkout closed until I showed up. Then again, we were often overstaffed - if not, I guess it would have been more of a problem. However, it did motivate me to work extra hard during my shift, and I feel I was a better and more productive worker than most others there. Also, I never worried about staying a few minutes late and helping to tidy up the store after closing, while most others would just slack off and mark time until they could clock out.
Socially, I’m often the last person to arrive for an event if there is no strict start time, and I have been known to keep people waiting, but IIRC I don’t think I have ever caused people to miss the start of a film/game. The worst victim is probably my gf, who constantly complains about my lateness. Fair enough if I’m late for dinner (which I have been once or twice, in fact on one occasion I was pulled for speeding, making me later!), but when I’m going to be seeing her for the rest of the day anyway, I find it hard to see her point of view. But I know it’s inconsiderate at best, and am trying to change.
So perhaps for me it’s a motivational thing - I find it easier to get motivated for social activities than work. It’s a psychological problem that only I can solve, but I’m working on it (yesterday I was on time to see my gf, and she was still in her underwear - good incentive!).
Xema, I’ll owe you that beer if I can get up tomorrow after this bout of insomnia.
I have been on time or early every day this month.
Jim
Well, the problem is that YOU don’t decide policy for your company. Your company does. I happen to work for a firm where we work long and odd hours. They are generally pretty flexible with us coming in late-ish or taking long lunches as we are evaluated on the hours we actually bill our clients. Some places aren’t so flexible. You may work late but start time is still 9:00 which means be there at 8:30. But even with that flexibility, you have people who start pushing the envelope. When the entire team is there at 9:00 and you stroll in at 10:30 and take another 20 minutes to set up, you are going to get called on it.
I used to have a real problem with an employee that insisted on being late. He’d come in 5 to 10 minutes late one or two times a week. He was docked 15 minutes every time he was late. He was written up (by me) for being late. Then he was terminated.
I really don’t care whether someone thinks that coming in 5 or 10 minutes late is nothing to worry about and that people who tell him that he has to be on time are nit-pickers. I have a job to do, and he no longer does.
I’m one of those people who tend to be late.
If it’s related to work, sometimes it’s because I didn’t get enough sleep. And that’s usually because I’m a night person and always have been, which makes morning my kryptonite.
Many years ago I had a job to which I was always chronically late. In retrospect after I had quit, I realized I had been in denial about how much I loathed the job. So part of my lateness factor was because the last place on earth where I wanted to be was at this awful job, but at the time I just couldn’t allow myself to acknowledge the problem.
At some jobs I’ve had that I liked, I was often at work before anyone else. However for some of those jobs, no one cared about lateness. We cared about getting the work done, not belittling people over negligible details like “tardiness”.
It’s almost like a catch-22 from my own experiences: the more uptight and belittling people are about lateness at a job, the less they care about the work actually getting done. And the jobs where lateness is a big issue are the jobs where management have the least respect for their employees, and get the least respect from their employees in turn.
Nice rationalization. From what you have told us about your experience, it seems like the more you care about or like your job, the less likely you are to be late. If that attitude could be applied globally (I know it can’t) then those who are late the most, care the least and maybe should be fired.
I think it’s also the case that, generally speaking, the lower you are on the totem pole, the more rigid the schedule is going to be. There will be exceptions, but clerks, cashiers, and service people usually have to be in at a fixed time. They need X warm bodies at the register, if you’re late, they’re short, and you get in trouble for it. Salaried professionals will more likely have msmith’s situation where it’s “get the work done” instead of “be here at 9”.
I can handle late people as long as it’s, oh, 5 - 15 minutes. What I simply cannot stand is the ones, like my husband, who are always early. I have insisted that we (hubby and I) sit in the car outside friends’ houses until the agreed upon time. He goes absolutely nuts, but I refuse to go up to the door when I know our hosts are still in the shower or vacuuming. That is much ruder, to me, than showing up 30 minutes late.
Actually I have worked second and third shift jobs. The second shift job I had to quit, I just couldn’t be awake and alert when I need to. The thrid shift jobs were like dreams, I was able to be awake and alert when I needed to be, everyday. Even now, if I have install or somesuch that has to be done over the course of several nights I do better than I do coming into work every morning.
The social thing gets to me though. I, of all people, am there on time. If I can do it, so can anyone else.
Glad to see that you made a more well-reasoned argument than “Late BAD! Whaa!”