Tired of playing time cop? 13% of employees report being late to work at least once a week. Maybe it’s just a habitual offenders who are the problem, but chronic tardiness can be a drain on employee productivity and a company’s bottom line. While the unpredictable can happen (rescued a kitten, flushed your keys, smashed your finger), there are some late-for-work excuses that show up time after time.
It should be no surprise that rush hour traffic is the #1 excuse for being late. A 2015 survey of over 2,500 hiring and human resource managers conducted by on behalf of CareerBuilder found that traffic was blamed for 53% of the excuses.
Other common reasons include:
Oversleeping
(33%)Bad weather
(28%)Lack of sleep
(23%)Getting kids to school or daycare (15%) While a 2/3 majority of both employers and employees think that the 9-to-5 daily grind is out of step with the times, over half of employers still expect employees to be on time to work every day. Although 62% of employees are willing to stay late to make up time, 41% of employers have fired someone for being late to work. Only 16% of employers don’t require employees to be punctual as long as they get their work done.
It may be time for companies to rethink their policies on punctuality. As millennials climb the corporate ladder (and become 50% of the American workforce by 2020) employers will be forced to adapt to millennials’ demands for greater work-life balance.
One way to make your workplace a little more millennial-friendly is to be flexible on work start and end times. This can actually boost morale, reduce stress, give a competitive edge to recruiting efforts and increase productivity.
But, if flex time is impractical and chronic lateness is a problem now, you may want to share our tips for helping your employees control the commute.
Meanwhile, what’s the wackiest or most outrageous excuse you’ve ever heard for being late? We’d love to know. Share your comments below.
