Community Chat

[CatsyCline]

if the employee is an individual contributor who gets the work done,  what is the problem?

if you are on a team or on  phones and logging on then it is a problem . one company i worked at depended on the team to be logged in and  ready to make outbound calls via an automated computer dialing system. this was a major retailer's credit collection division

the time clock had the swipe card set at 7 minutes before and 7 minutes after the shift start . if you swiped in 8 minutes or more past the hour it was noted. 2 times they gave a verbal warning. third time written warning. after that any infraction would result in termination.

[ChynnaBlue]

I don't really care, as long as the person isn't late for meetings.

I don't police the hours of my co-workers. That's what managers are for because they may have information I don't.

We have people who come in at 7am and leave at 3 or 4pm and people who come in at just before 9 and leave after 6pm. We have people who take lunch every day and people who eat at their desks every day. We also have people who have meetings at 5 or 6am or 8pm or 9pm, so they might come in late or go home early to compensate.

[KarenQVC]

Latecomers are a distraction and usually all around PITAs.

[missy1]

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@ChynnaBlue wrote:

I don't really care, as long as the person isn't late for meetings.

I don't police the hours of my co-workers. That's what managers are for because they may have information I don't.

We have people who come in at 7am and leave at 3 or 4pm and people who come in at just before 9 and leave after 6pm. We have people who take lunch every day and people who eat at their desks every day. We also have people who have meetings at 5 or 6am or 8pm or 9pm, so they might come in late or go home early to compensate.

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Many jobs you have to clock in and out. You work as a team. Schools, govt, state, city, businesses etc have to be open on a certain time. No late people. Same with jobs that a employee has to relieve another person so they can go home. ( hospital staff etc.)  One size does not fit all. My high ranking pet peeve, are people who are late anywhere.

[barrel racer]

I worked in a school office front desk and attendance, for 25 years.  If I was late I wouldn't have had a job or a pension to live on when I retired.

[cerb]

I agree with the OP that this is an annoying circumstance.  The co-worker is wrong for being late on a regular basis.  Equal fault lies with the supervisor or boss who is not monitoring and taking care of the situation.  When one employee starts getting away with bad behavior, the employees who are constantly working hard begin to get resentful.  That is the natural course of things.  

BTW - there are plenty of jobs where you can't "make up" the work by staying half-an-hour late, such as a business which is open to the public during set hours.  If an employee isn't there during open hours, the business suffers and there's no way to make it up.  Also, many businesses do not have time clocks, so late employees are getting paid for work they didn't do.  That is stealing from the boss.  Not cool.

[Deanie]

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@Nataliesgramma wrote:

The Hospital that my Sister-in-law works for just initiated a policy that if you clock in late more than 3 times in a 6 month period....you are let go.

They had to do this because of so many employees coming in late and affecting the next shift...

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Dr. Walter Williams, a famous economist, wrote on the issues of errant behavior and how it has an effect on all.  He termed it, "the Gotcha Factor"  I am paraphrasing his explanation, however, simply stated, when people see others getting away with bad behavior, poor decisions and the like they then start to feel like "chumps."  After a period of time, their behavior starts to deteriorate and it becomes a group phenomenon.  Once an entire group is involved it becomes very difficult to change the 'group think'

[RedTop]

I agree with the comment that the employee continues to be late because she gets away with it.  She should not be accommodated, and should stay later in the evening to get in all of her time.   

At the hospital where I worked, we had a 7 minute leeway, and could clock in 7 minutes before the shift started, or 7 minutes after, but if you clocked in 8 minutes after the shift started, you were late.  I had 2 late clock in actions in 27 years; one was due to a snowstorm, and the other was because of a traffic delay due to an accident.   Mine were not held against me.  

Our policy stated that 3 late clock ins in a quarter resulted in a written disciplinary action; 3 written actions in a year were enough to keep you from getting a raise.  Even the most tardy of our employees eventually got the message to be on time, when they didn't get a raise.    

[Shorty2U]

I cannot take people who are late for every thing! It's so rude IMO.

Anyway, DH and I have a friend who is late to work, late to parties, late to dinner, late to everything. And he gets away with it! So much so that he made his own hours at his job and gets to come in at 10 where others come in at 9. Of course he has to work late then. (He builds data bases).

He often says he doesn't know how my husband can get up at 4AM for work after 5. Yeah well, my husband finishes working by 130PM  every other week, and 230PM every other week (It rotates). So IMO my husbands job is better because he gets to have a life after work, where as our friend is stuck at work late every day!..lol. We run all of our errands and go to Dr appts etc.together when DH is finished work. (I don't work anymore) So I like my husbands schedule!

And my husband is never late for anything unless something happens. In fact when he has been late a few times in YEARS (due to an accident and traffic being re-routed), I was worried something happened to him because he is that punctual!

[pommom]

At my last place of employment from which I retired, we had to clock in/out.  We were not allowed to clock in early or make up for coming in late.  If we were late, we could not make up for it by taking a short lunch or clocking out later after the work day was over.

There was one co-worker who consistently reported to work late.  She was given notice 3 times.  As far as I know, she's still there and was actually given a big promotion.  ???