Staff lateness - and blaming traffic.
Discussion
Anyone else suffer from this excuse? Nearly every day someone turns up 10 - 15 minutes late and seems to think it's not their fault if "the traffic is bad".
They all live in the same town, there are roadworks going on, admittedly, but they are not life changing, just a bit more congestion than usual. Either they are incapable of finding an alternate route or they just can't figure out that they need to leave home a bit earlier.
I'm starting to firmly suggest they should leave earlier and am getting close to giving some verbal warnings, am I being reasonable or is bad traffic a legitimate excuse?
They all live in the same town, there are roadworks going on, admittedly, but they are not life changing, just a bit more congestion than usual. Either they are incapable of finding an alternate route or they just can't figure out that they need to leave home a bit earlier.
I'm starting to firmly suggest they should leave earlier and am getting close to giving some verbal warnings, am I being reasonable or is bad traffic a legitimate excuse?
Depends on the place. At its worst, from where I live in Bristol, the same 5 mile journey can be either 20 or 60 minutes at its best and worst extremes (leaving at the same time each day).
If it's the same couple of people time and time again though, then they clearly aren't leaving in sufficient time.
If it's the same couple of people time and time again though, then they clearly aren't leaving in sufficient time.
I used to have a ditzy female employee who was often about ten mins late, maybe once a week.
Her excuse was "normally the traffic is fine, but once in a while it's really bad and makes me ten mins late"
(Imagine that in social-media-generation, stream-of-consciousness babble and you get the picture)
I replied "leave ten minutes earlier".
Her excuse was "normally the traffic is fine, but once in a while it's really bad and makes me ten mins late"
(Imagine that in social-media-generation, stream-of-consciousness babble and you get the picture)
I replied "leave ten minutes earlier".
Difficult and I guess it depends on location.
I live and work in Surrey; live just outside of the M25 but I work within the M25.
Sometimes it can take me 30 minutes to do the 12 miles to work, generally 45-1hr but occasionally it takes me 1hr 30 minutes to get to work, I always go the back routes; avoiding the A3 but inevitably towards the end of my journey I get caught in traffic and if the A3 and M25 are solid, then the back routes are affected.
As I said I think it depends more on location, and the general attitude of some staff; if there is a cluster who live near each other but there is always one or 2 who are always late; blaming traffic, but others who get in on time with no great hassle, a word needs to be had.
Fortunately for me, my Manager comes from even further away so he can be late.
I live and work in Surrey; live just outside of the M25 but I work within the M25.
Sometimes it can take me 30 minutes to do the 12 miles to work, generally 45-1hr but occasionally it takes me 1hr 30 minutes to get to work, I always go the back routes; avoiding the A3 but inevitably towards the end of my journey I get caught in traffic and if the A3 and M25 are solid, then the back routes are affected.
As I said I think it depends more on location, and the general attitude of some staff; if there is a cluster who live near each other but there is always one or 2 who are always late; blaming traffic, but others who get in on time with no great hassle, a word needs to be had.
Fortunately for me, my Manager comes from even further away so he can be late.
Does your business depend on people being there from a certain time, or is it an arbitary start time because that is what it has always been? If the former, then an all staff email, followed by individual written warnings. If the latter, why not flex things up a bit?
Where I work the nominal business hours are 9am-5:15pm with 45 mins for lunch, but people choose to arrive any time between 8 and 10, then stagger their day accordingly. As long as the hours are done over a month nobody minds. There is no formal measurement, people are trusted to do their hours.
We are pretty big on flexible working, everyone likes it and few take the piss - in fact I work later into the evening to let the traffic go, so their net gain from me is often more than my contracted 37.5hrs/week.
Where I work the nominal business hours are 9am-5:15pm with 45 mins for lunch, but people choose to arrive any time between 8 and 10, then stagger their day accordingly. As long as the hours are done over a month nobody minds. There is no formal measurement, people are trusted to do their hours.
We are pretty big on flexible working, everyone likes it and few take the piss - in fact I work later into the evening to let the traffic go, so their net gain from me is often more than my contracted 37.5hrs/week.
HTP99 said:
Difficult and I guess it depends on location.
I live and work in Surrey; live just outside of the M25 but I work within the M25.
Sometimes it can take me 30 minutes to do the 12 miles to work, generally 45-1hr but occasionally it takes me 1hr 30 minutes to get to work, I always go the back routes; avoiding the A3 but inevitably towards the end of my journey I get caught in traffic and if the A3 and M25 are solid, then the back routes are affected.
As I said I think it depends more on location, and the general attitude of some staff; if there is a cluster who live near each other but there is always one or 2 who are always late; blaming traffic, but others who get in on time with no great hassle, a word needs to be had.
Fortunately for me, my Manager comes from even further away so he can be late.
Snap. I have to contend with Reigate to Weybridge and back every day.I live and work in Surrey; live just outside of the M25 but I work within the M25.
Sometimes it can take me 30 minutes to do the 12 miles to work, generally 45-1hr but occasionally it takes me 1hr 30 minutes to get to work, I always go the back routes; avoiding the A3 but inevitably towards the end of my journey I get caught in traffic and if the A3 and M25 are solid, then the back routes are affected.
As I said I think it depends more on location, and the general attitude of some staff; if there is a cluster who live near each other but there is always one or 2 who are always late; blaming traffic, but others who get in on time with no great hassle, a word needs to be had.
Fortunately for me, my Manager comes from even further away so he can be late.
I get into the office insanely early now (6.30am) just so I dont have to contend with it - on the plus side I get a lot done in the 2hrs before anyone else is in. On the way home though its generally unavoidable.
Thankfully there are a lot of back routes. If I had to rely on the M25 I couldnt do it.
70% of the time its across the M25, into Effingham and then Dorking. Without this route I would be screwed.
Do the staff who arrive late make up the time or do they expect to be able to leave at the normal leaving time?
Are there other issues of performance, attitude or application with them?
As someone else asked, are they required to be there at a particular start time to do their job, ie, answer the phones, operate a till or machine?
And does their lateness cause issues with the other members of staff who arrive on time?
Does the company ever need flexibility from staff to stay late, work through lunch, etc if an urgent rush job happens?
There are quite a few factors to consider to decide how to handle it.
Are there other issues of performance, attitude or application with them?
As someone else asked, are they required to be there at a particular start time to do their job, ie, answer the phones, operate a till or machine?
And does their lateness cause issues with the other members of staff who arrive on time?
Does the company ever need flexibility from staff to stay late, work through lunch, etc if an urgent rush job happens?
There are quite a few factors to consider to decide how to handle it.
I once had to "defend" a union member who was always late.
Lived 2 miles from work, excuses:
Low on Fuel went to garage
Heavy traffic
Flat tyre
Snow
Car crash
Clearing ice from car
and the list went on.
On the day of the discplinary hearing the member came to me and told me that the previous day one of her fellow workers was late.
She explained that the staff member came from 40 miles away and the train was cancelled, first time this has happened.
What were managers going to do about that.
I rest my case with this one.
Lived 2 miles from work, excuses:
Low on Fuel went to garage
Heavy traffic
Flat tyre
Snow
Car crash
Clearing ice from car
and the list went on.
On the day of the discplinary hearing the member came to me and told me that the previous day one of her fellow workers was late.
She explained that the staff member came from 40 miles away and the train was cancelled, first time this has happened.
What were managers going to do about that.
I rest my case with this one.
BoRED S2upid said:
I'm guessing they are all leaving the 10-15 minutes later? If so then I wouldn't have an issue 9-5 9:15-5:15 same difference unless your business needs something to happen dead on 9 and this 15 minutes is causing you problems?
I have to say I agree with this, in this day and age flexibility is key.There's very few businesses I can think of where you absolutely need bums in seats at x time. The old "leave earlier and plan accordingly" is usually just an excuse by inflexible management.
PurpleTurtle said:
Does your business depend on people being there from a certain time, or is it an arbitary start time because that is what it has always been? If the former, then an all staff email, followed by individual written warnings. If the latter, why not flex things up a bit?
This is a critical time for the staff member that is planned to be in at this time - they are driving a route to collect customers so unless they leave on time it causes knock on problems through the day.So in reality it can't be flexible.
I think I simply need to nip it in the bud and say late is late, end of story.
minghis said:
PurpleTurtle said:
Does your business depend on people being there from a certain time, or is it an arbitary start time because that is what it has always been? If the former, then an all staff email, followed by individual written warnings. If the latter, why not flex things up a bit?
This is a critical time for the staff member that is planned to be in at this time - they are driving a route to collect customers so unless they leave on time it causes knock on problems through the day.So in reality it can't be flexible.
I think I simply need to nip it in the bud and say late is late, end of story.
That's just piss poor planning. Take 'em out into the car park and shoot 'em!
minghis said:
PurpleTurtle said:
Does your business depend on people being there from a certain time, or is it an arbitary start time because that is what it has always been? If the former, then an all staff email, followed by individual written warnings. If the latter, why not flex things up a bit?
This is a critical time for the staff member that is planned to be in at this time - they are driving a route to collect customers so unless they leave on time it causes knock on problems through the day.So in reality it can't be flexible.
I think I simply need to nip it in the bud and say late is late, end of story.
Meaningful conversation
Verbal Warning
Written Warning
Bye bye!
I used to have a chap who caught the bus in a time dependant job, he could either be here 30mins early or 30 mins late, it took a lot of time trying convince him that he should be getting here early not late. Upon him opening the discussion as to whether his 30mins extra a day would be overtime at single time or double he was advised that he may not be best suited working for me.
These people walk amongst us and can make decisions which affect my life!!
These people walk amongst us and can make decisions which affect my life!!
Sheetmaself said:
I used to have a chap who caught the bus in a time dependant job, he could either be here 30mins early or 30 mins late, it took a lot of time trying convince him that he should be getting here early not late. Upon him opening the discussion as to whether his 30mins extra a day would be overtime at single time or double he was advised that he may not be best suited working for me.
These people walk amongst us and can make decisions which affect my life!!
Was this chap in an hourly paid role, if so I can see his point?These people walk amongst us and can make decisions which affect my life!!
Even if he was salaried, you have instructed him to effectively change his working hours and add 2.5 hours per week, I presume you also said he could leave 30 minutes earlier to make up for it? You gave him a contract when he started that outlined his start time, subsequently telling him to start half an hour earlier for no extra benefit seems harsh.
minghis said:
Anyone else suffer from this excuse? Nearly every day someone turns up 10 - 15 minutes late and seems to think it's not their fault if "the traffic is bad".
They all live in the same town, there are roadworks going on, admittedly, but they are not life changing, just a bit more congestion than usual. Either they are incapable of finding an alternate route or they just can't figure out that they need to leave home a bit earlier.
I'm starting to firmly suggest they should leave earlier and am getting close to giving some verbal warnings, am I being reasonable or is bad traffic a legitimate excuse?
Super, can they also leave 15 mins earlier just in case traffic is bad on the way home? If the answer is no perhaps you need to think on.They all live in the same town, there are roadworks going on, admittedly, but they are not life changing, just a bit more congestion than usual. Either they are incapable of finding an alternate route or they just can't figure out that they need to leave home a bit earlier.
I'm starting to firmly suggest they should leave earlier and am getting close to giving some verbal warnings, am I being reasonable or is bad traffic a legitimate excuse?
TX.
Edit - Or perhaps offer some flexi time eg 15 mins late start = 15 mins late leave? Nice boss vs nasty boss ...
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