Has it become the new norm at the workplace?

It certainly seems that way to me. In fact, employees no longer seem to get in trouble for being chronically late, at least in my experience from what I have witnessed.

Having spent nearly twenty years in retail, I have noticed the trend of employers no longer overly concerned about lateness from certain individuals. I remember one guy who was always late, got promoted despite this fact, and then still continued to be late to work.

In the medical field, it also appears to quite the trend that supervisors merely pretend to care about, because the same people keep coming in late and are never fired.

Let's have your opinions on the matter.

There's a scene from the old American sitcom 'Taxi' in which Danny DeVito's character is giving his view on lateness.  More or less, it runs something like,  'In this garage, there are only three acceptable excuses for showing up late for your shift: heart attack, death, loss of a major limb.  And "heart attack" is a judgement call I make.'

This pretty much sums up my view on the matter.  Chronic lateness shows a tremendous lack of respect for both your employer and your co-workers, particularly if you don't send some sort of, 'Running late - be there shortly' message.'  That being said, there are valid reasons for being late to work, including:

-Car trouble/public transport strike

-The leccy was off, so your alarm didn't go

-Illness or family crisis

Unacceptable reasons include:

-Heavy traffic

-A long line at Starbucks

-Hangover

Boru

Power outage is not an acceptable excuse for being late. Unless the power is also out at work.

(January 28, 2020 at 7:23 am)onlinebiker Wrote: Power outage is not an acceptable excuse for being late. Unless the power is also out at work.

Why not?

Boru

I have a side rant to this. Often I have worked as a salaried employee or an hourly employee among salaried employees. The half hour or hour-long lunch break seems to get stretched by some, rather routinely, to 90 minutes or two hours leaving others to cover the time. It seems there are certain people who just do this as a matter of routine and it doesn't seem to matter to those in charge.

(January 28, 2020 at 7:30 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:

(January 28, 2020 at 7:23 am)onlinebiker Wrote: Power outage is not an acceptable excuse for being late. Unless the power is also out at work.

Why not?

Boru

Get an alarm that is independent from commercial power.

Excuses are for those who can't plan ahead.

I use my phone as my alarm just in case the power does go out during the night.

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Funny thing about people who reguarly show up late is that it doesnt matter what you change their start time too. I worked at a place that had a number of employees who would always come in between 10 and 15 minutes late, so the company decided to change the start time form 8am to 8:15am. As you can imagine this did not fix the problem, the same people still showed up 10-15 minutes late.

(January 28, 2020 at 8:32 am)Mr.wizard Wrote: I use my phone as my alarm just in case the power does go out during the night.

A prepared employee is a good employee who doesn't need excuses..

(January 28, 2020 at 6:49 am)Fierce Wrote: Has it become the new norm at the workplace?

It certainly seems that way to me. In fact, employees no longer seem to get in trouble for being chronically late, at least in my experience from what I have witnessed.

Having spent nearly twenty years in retail, I have noticed the trend of employers no longer overly concerned about lateness from certain individuals. I remember one guy who was always late, got promoted despite this fact, and then still continued to be late to work.

In the medical field, it also appears to quite the trend that supervisors merely pretend to care about, because the same people keep coming in late and are never fired.

Let's have your opinions on the matter.

Depends. In general, it sucks when others are late sure. But depending on your rank, and even family status to the owner, the owner's bottom line is ultimately what they care about. So, if you are late, but constantly boost profits, it is far more likely your behavior is going to get overlooked. 

I do know mom an pop shops, the kids of the owners got away with murder as far as that was concerned. I actually worked for a national major pizza chain at a local franchise myself. Now while I was not the owners kid, I pretty much went in when I wanted to. I was the prep person that got the entire store ready for the weekend. I did all the food prep, checked the dough and cheese in the freezer and folded all the boxes for the weekend. It isn't as simple as it seems. The managers and staff loved me so much, I set my own hours not even being a shift or store manager.

It is not fun going int a shift not having enough people there. But it is also not fun not being prepared for the high traffic rush, especially on the weekend. I figure if someone is willing to do all the shit work others wont do, you can cut them some slack. Mind you, I am not talking about self entitled family. But consideration for the non connected non wealthy who simply know what they are doing and want some wiggle room.

I did all the shit work the others hated doing, I even traded deliveries just so I wouldn't have to multitask. In retail and fast food you have to stop and start all the fucking time, and it is a physical drain and psychological drain on everyone. Big business knows this, but they don't fucking care. If people are late for the most part, it is because they have a job that doesn't pay shit, and the business model protocol is designed to break the worker.

If the Walmart/McDonnalds/Amazon types had their way, they'd take America back to the old West Virginia/Kentucky coal mine Barron scams. The coal mine owners would buy up all the land, and end up owning the housing, and grocery stores, and pay workers in basically useless company script. By the time the worker paid rent and food, with company script, they would be in debt.

I would stop bitching about others being late to work, and ask yourself why they don't like showing up to work. I think the answer is obvious. If you keep spinning your wheels and nothing seems to get you ahead, how much are you going to care while there?

It is easy for owners to blame employees.

In my workplace, any employee that arrives late everyday won't last long. Single cases are allowed. There are cases of people that due to the public transport shedule can't arrive in time. In those cases they usually compromise, leaving the workplace later.