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What would you expect from a book titled Late for Work? A sermon perhaps: “Punctuality is the soul of business”. Or some wisecracks, a boss in full admonishing flow: “The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.”
But David Tucker’s book belongs to a different genre altogether – its poetry. Tucker believes in rhyme while others prefer reasons. Andy Sharpe’s 365 Excuses for Being Late at Work is one example. There are many others.
Contrary to anecdotal evidence, the Indian workplace seems to be least tolerant of tardy employees. According to a survey by CareerBuilder, 42 per cent of the Indian employers surveyed say they have fired an employee for being late. This was the highest in the world. Brazil was next with 26 per cent. France and Russia (22 per cent each) were jointly in third place. At the other end was Italy (6 per cent).
Are Indian employers really so strict? First, leave out the public sector; you can’t fire anybody there. Second, the Indian perception of “late” differs from most Western countries.
Excuses for being late can be quite creative. A 2011 CareerBuilder survey lists some out-of-the-box excuses. Among them:
Employee claimed his car was inhabited by a hive of bees.
Employee claimed her cat attacked her.
Employee claimed his hair was hurting his head.
Employee claimed he knew he was already going to be late, so he figured he would go ahead and stop to get donuts for everyone.
Employee claimed her karma was not in sync that day.
A CareerBuilder survey released earlier this year has a different set of inspired thoughts:
Employee dropped her purse into a coin-operated newspaper box and couldn’t retrieve it without change (which was in the purse).
Employee’s angry wife had frozen his truck keys in a glass of water in the freezer.
Employee got a late start because she was putting a raincoat on her cement duck in her front yard.
Employee’s car was attacked by a bear (had photographic evidence).
Employee drove to her previous employer by mistake.
There is, of course, a humorous side to tardiness. But it can be very serious for a company too. Even 10 minutes delay can cause a productivity loss of hours. An office often functions like an assembly line operation (though it is not very obvious). You take out one cog for 10 minutes and the entire system comes to a standstill for those 10 minutes. Tardiness costs US businesses more than $3 billion a year.
Understandably, other employees cannot be happy with their colleagues who are late. It affects morale. If the person is in a customer-facing job, it affects interactions. The management has to take action, but not everyone can be as tough as Indian employers.
According to a survey by recruitment consultants Office Angels, 23 per cent of the employees in their sample believe that arriving late to the office isn’t ever acceptable. However, 90 per cent of employers and employees agree that arriving late to the office but making up time at the end of the day is occasionally pardonable.
It’s not employees alone who are affected by this malaise. A study in the US says that CEOs fail to be on time for eight out of 10 meetings. That can be even costlier than employee tardiness.
Lateness seems to be inevitable. But there could be succour at hand; the perception of lateness is changing. According to a survey by data protection company Mozy, US and European bosses are more tolerant in these days of smartphones. Employees may check in by 9am but they have very often started work earlier – accessing and answering emails, for instance. Thanks to technology, employees are actually working 12 hours a day.
The smart folks are those that don’t acquire smartphones.
WATCH OUT
How not to be late for work
Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier
Prepare outfits and lunch the night before to save time in the morning
Reward yourself when you arrive early or on time
Pin down the most frequent excuses for being late, then wipe them out
Ask to work flexibly and start half an hour later
Arrive early but leave on time
Source: Office Angels
