Being late for work - is it acceptable these days?

Pretty much what Hazel said (well apart from the baby bit)

As long as I do the core hours 10-12, 2-4 and fit my 37.5 hours round that I can come in when I like and go when I like, I tend to do 8-4.15 with 45 mins for lunch

I think giving the excuse 'Im rubbish in the mornings' is very feeble, just get up earlier!!

I hate being late for stuff too, I always try and make sure I am 5 mins early for most things, and always end up hanging round

Pretty much what Hazel said (well apart from the baby bit)

As long as I do the core hours 10-12, 2-4 and fit my 37.5 hours round that I can come in when I like and go when I like, I tend to do 8-4.15 with 45 mins for lunch

I think giving the excuse 'Im rubbish in the mornings' is very feeble, just get up earlier!!

I hate being late for stuff too, I always try and make sure I am 5 mins early for most things, and always end up hanging round bored -

Pretty much what Hazel said (well apart from the baby bit)

As long as I do the core hours 10-12, 2-4 and fit my 37.5 hours round that I can come in when I like and go when I like, I tend to do 8-4.15 with 45 mins for lunch

I think giving the excuse 'Im rubbish in the mornings' is very feeble, just get up earlier!!

I hate being late for stuff too, I always try and make sure I am 5 mins early for most things, and always end up hanging round bored

Pretty much what Hazel said (well apart from the baby bit)

As long as I do the core hours 10-12, 2-4 and fit my 37.5 hours round that I can come in when I like and go when I like, I tend to do 8-4.15 with 45 mins for lunch

I think giving the excuse 'Im rubbish in the mornings' is very feeble, just get up earlier!!

I hate being late for stuff too, I always try and make sure I am 5 mins early for most things, and always end up hanging round bored - better

Pretty much what Hazel said (well apart from the baby bit)

As long as I do the core hours 10-12, 2-4 and fit my 37.5 hours round that I can come in when I like and go when I like, I tend to do 8-4.15 with 45 mins for lunch

I think giving the excuse 'Im rubbish in the mornings' is very feeble, just get up earlier!!

I hate being late for stuff too, I always try and make sure I am 5 mins early for most things, and always end up hanging round bored - better that

Pretty much what Hazel said (well apart from the baby bit)

As long as I do the core hours 10-12, 2-4 and fit my 37.5 hours round that I can come in when I like and go when I like, I tend to do 8-4.15 with 45 mins for lunch

I think giving the excuse 'Im rubbish in the mornings' is very feeble, just get up earlier!!

I hate being late for stuff too, I always try and make sure I am 5 mins early for most things, and always end up hanging round bored - better that though than

Pretty much what Hazel said (well apart from the baby bit)

As long as I do the core hours 10-12, 2-4 and fit my 37.5 hours round that I can come in when I like and go when I like, I tend to do 8-4.15 with 45 mins for lunch

I think giving the excuse 'Im rubbish in the mornings' is very feeble, just get up earlier!!

I hate being late for stuff too, I always try and make sure I am 5 mins early for most things, and always end up hanging round bored - better that though than being late

What was that, ILS? ??

Sorry I love shoes could you repeat that I didn't quite catch it ?

I also don't understand why people wouldn't think to get up earlier. I've ALWAYS been a punctual person, I hate lateness, I've even been on here complaining about with an ex friend who was late.

Late for work/appointments etc shows no respect for the person affected by your lateness, I can't stand it.

Ugh Gremlins, i only pressed post once!!

Absolutely not.

I had a meeting with someone recently (and posted on here ranting about it IIRC) who was over 2hrs late then said "I've got some important things to do first". I was flabbergasted. I gave it 10 minutes then went up to his office. His secretary stopped me and said he was having a bad day and had a long commute. He lives THIRTY miles away!! I had driven 100 miles and still got there early.

If you leave enough time, you can get anywhere on time. I do 600 miles a week for work and am never late. I do have to get up quite early mind...

seriously? does it add up to that much?

thats shocking

i don't really understand the 'well my boss hasn't said anything so it doesn't matter' thing either. my personal pride wouldn't let me be 15 mins late every day. i bet everyone's muttering about it, i'd be totally paranoid

My favourite shirking story is about a guy who used to work with my ex, who was always slinking off to do non-essential things in work time. (I've no idea if he turned up for work on time or not, though).

When challenged by his boss about the fact that he was often seen leaving the office to have his hair cut, he responded, 'But my hair grows in company time, so why shouldn't I get it cut in company time?'

?

My husband currently leaves the house at 5.30am he is always the first on the ward at the hospital he works at, I wouldn't mind but it isn't actually that essential that he does the first ward round anymore [shakes head]

This has a knock on effect for me though, if I've no child care and I have a training session to get in then I'm up and out running by 4.30 am......I fooking hate morning running as well ?

Faaaa-ha-ark me that's early!! Do you need to run?!

well i didnt take into acount holidays and bank holidays ?

Surely if the company were incredibly strict about one being in at (say 9) then I could also be incredibly strict about leaving at 5.15 and having my full one hour lunch? I think you have to give flexibility to expect it.

That said i am not late, i'm a manager I feel I can't set a bad example. I can't expect them to be on time if I can't.

Well no I guess, no one is holding a gun to my head but I've made a pretty big commitment to my next marathon. I've also been taken on by a well-known coach who is training me for free. If I don't get the sessions in that he has set the sense of guilt is overwhelming....trust me I would rather be late for work ?

H is having this problem with staff at the moment - his companies hours are (I think) 8.30-5.30 with an hour for lunch. He has company meetings early one day a week at 8.40, one guy threw a strop yesterday because stuff that involved him was discussed without him being there, so H replied with "your hours are 8.30 to 5.30, this was discussed at 8.50, I cannot put off the working day just because you cannot get in on time", to which he threw an even bigger strop that he wasn't going to discuss such petty things with him, so wasn't going to bother reading the email.

I can't believe that a) someone things tardiness for work is acceptable, especially meetings, b) that someone can be so childish and c) that he's going to have no comeback from his company (H's chairman wont do anything) for being such a child - this isnt the first instance of similar things. Other colleagues turn up for an hour, then say they/their children have child care issues and go home again! Actually, I don't know how H copes with them.

That's frustrating but it's the downside of having children. If they're ill, you can't put them into childcare. So unless you're extremely lucky and have someone else who can take them, you have to leave work.

(The upside for an employer is that if you're doing a job, like mine, where you have very very strict deadlines and a child to look after, you're super-dooper organised and make sure you're as well planned as possible for any crises. And consquently you're more efficent than the rest of your colleagues put together [or so it seems some days, gah!])

I don't think it's the same as the very childish "I'm late for a meeting but it's your fault I don't know what's going on"!

I hate lateness, we had a temp who regularly came in at 9.30/9.45 and then used to say she had a half hour lunch (always an hour) and left at 5.30/5.45 which she did but after everyone else left at 5 she got out her take a break magazine and sat at her desk drinking coffee

She did get sacked off to another dept though eventually and they are now sacking her off because she spends too long away from her desk (half hour toilet breaks), lateness etc

Most of these are grandparents, and in core (customer facing) jobs with no cover, and no notice that these things are happening (not even 10minutes). The majority is not occasional last minute change of plans, just lack of planning. In fact, I don't think any of Hs staff have children younger than 15 any more

So are they leaving to look after sick grandchildren while their parents work? That's quite bizarre and unacceptable to be honest, except in a genuine emergency.

We had someone here turn up an hour and a half for her induction day. She said "It's an hour and half to here from where I live!". I didn't know what to say! She didn't last long.

My current job is very relaxed and there is no one watching the clock as it were, but at the same time they do trust you to keep your hours.

My new work has a very big site and you carry a pass around and have to basically clock in and out, which is logged into a system so you can use the flexi time scheme. I think this is a great idea as it ensures everyone is doing the hours so no one cares if you leave early or late. The system sends a message to the manager if a person hasn't met their hours after two weeks.

I'm astounded by some of these stories but I've seen lateness creep in here, mainly from graduates (I've moaned about them for a number of things, mainly them thinking the world revolves around them)

I think our core hours are 9 to 5.30 but I can't think the last time I worked that. I generally do 8.30 to 6-6.30ish but will start earlier or work later as required to do the job. On the other hand, the company and my boss are extremely flexible so if I leave early / work from home / have dentist appointments etc no body blinks any eye (I only do these things if no conflicts).

I'm gobsmacked by the attitude of not appearing to give a stuff, surely if your job is to be there at 9, you should be there at 9 (exceptional situations excepted). Not 9.10 just because you can never be arsed to get out of bet early enough.

Maybe it's because I'm older than a lot of other Hitchers here, but I find it shocking how many people seem to find persistent lateness acceptable and part of office life. It's a 'no-one says anything so it's not important' attitude and I think it's rather sad. I know there are some places where the prevailing attitude is along the lines of: "As long as you get all your work done, that phones are covered and you aren't inconveniencing your colleagues then if you start late or leave early it doesn't matter too much". But I think that many workplaces can't operate efficiently on this kind of loose structure.

I think the OP's colleagues are in indeed, to quote NickJ, taking the piss. I blame the manager there for not errr... managing. What else is the manager not noticing about his staff and their their performance?

Persistant lateness is unprofessional and unfair on the company and your colleagues. I am occasionally late when there's a huge snarl-up on the m-way, but I'm generally early and leave after my contracted hours, too. And I always apologise on those occasions when I am late.

If you're not good at mornings - sorry, tough. It sounds to me like a lame excuse. Grow up and deal with it like the rest of us.

We had a radiographer who used to do a few hours a week for us. She was supposed to work 12-3 but we used to joke that she thought that 12 was when she left her house and 3 was when she was back home.

One day she phoned up and said "I won't be coming into work today, I'm far too busy and I won't have time to play golf if I do" ?

Lateness is not acceptable at my work but if it's occasional and can't be helped then we can work the time up. If any of us is a few minutes late it's always caused by smashes on the motorway or traffic problems. My hours are 8.30-4.30 but as I now have to do school runs I've changed my hours to 8.30-4.30 one day, 8.15-4.15 one day and 8.45-4.45 two days. That's fine as they know when I'll be in. Likewise if needs be I can swap from say an 8.15 start to an 8.30 start if I give prior notice.

In my first job i had to ring a colleague (who was twice my 18 years) to wake her up so that she'd be "only" 40 minutes late. when i left the agency had to ring her instead. without the call it was lucky if she arrived by lunch. (core hours being 9-5)

One of my managers where I used to work was late every single day. She was supposed to be at by 9am. She was seldom in before 9.30am. she would be late for meetings during the day, and disappear on 90+ mins lunch breaks, before leaving, usually, by around 4pm-4.30pm. She was supposed to be there till 5.30pm.

Which made her habit of complaining if anyone else on the team was late a bit rich.

She is no longer employed by the company and her slack attitude was a contributory factor to her being shown the door.