ALT-3 Why Habitual Tardiness might be an Employers Pet Peeve
Tardiness is a common pet peeve among bosses, and for several fairly compelling reasons. Although it might seem pernickety for the office manager to tick off grown adults who arrive five minutes late for an eight-hour working day (and who can easily make up the time during various breaks throughout the day or by working five minutes late in the evening), there are several reasons why habitual tardiness might be an employer's pet peeve.
The first reason is fairly evident - if a person is late for work by five minutes, that is five minutes during which they will not be working, but five minutes for which they are being paid. With a punctual employee who comes in late in exceptional circumstances once every few months, this five minutes is negligible in terms of lost productivity (and someone who is normally so diligent with their timekeeping will probably make up the lost time at the end of the day or during a break anyway) but if someone is habitually tardy, those five-minute delays can add up to a lot of lost working hours by the end of a year.
Tardiness can also be frowned upon because of the way in which it can be perceived by other members of staff. Nothing is worse for team morale than a person who gets into the office late as a matter of course and is perceived to be getting away with it: 'Why do I bother busting a gut to be here on time if this guy can swan in whenever they feel like it?' is a fairly understandable reaction among co-workers, who will first begin to resent the latecomer and then could be tempted to start bending the rules themselves. Even employers who do not view habitual tardiness in individuals as a pet peeve would be anxious to avoid a wider culture of tardiness developing in the office.
But beyond productivity and morale concerns, habitual tardiness can be a pet peeve because of what it says about a person and their professional attitude. If a person is frequently late to work, or late back from breaks, it suggests a lack of commitment to their career, and a lack of respect for their employer as an organisation, and possibly as an individual. It suggests that they're demotivated, and at the very least disorganised. None of which are exactly desirable attitudes in a professional person.
Habitual tardiness is completely inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour - in a tough job market, turning up on time is the very least any employee can do if they want to go on to have a successful career and keep on the boss's good side.
