Many people reach work late at times, but the problem starts when this lateness occurs frequently or becomes a habit.
There are many reasons for habitual late coming.
1. The first and major reason could be the natural biological rhythm or clock of the individual. Some people find that their maximum productive hours are in the evenings, and find it very difficult to wake up early.
2. People might have cultivated a habit of staying up late and consequently waking up late. This could be due to a variety of issues like timings of previous work, cultural or family trends, addiction to late night television shows, chatting with friends at different time zones, part time jobs, frequently partying and the like.
3. People with health problems like obesity and alcoholism find it difficult to wake up in the mornings.
4. Some people take a long time to shower, get ready, and eat breakfast. Either this could be because of the biological rhythm wherein they are at their productive worst during the mornings, or simply because this has become a habit.
5. People who have to drop kids at schools might find themselves late on a regular basis either if the kid delays to get out of the house, or if there is too little time to comfortably make it to the office from the school.
6. It could be that people have not inculcated the habit of punctuality. They would not know how to prioritize or manage their time efficient, and would thus stay up late to finish the day's chores, or distracted by other tasks before coming to office. Such people are unlikely to be sincere, honest or punctual in their lives
7. Some people would not be committed enough in their lives, leave alone their jobs. They tend to loose focus and let things drift away when some emergencies happen.
8. It could also be that some people might have lost their interest in the job and is no longer committed enough to be punctual. People who do not value their job, and feel they have better alternatives could also go into this same mode.
9. Traffic jams, vehicle breakdowns, minor accidents, the alarm not going off, having to take someone to the hospital, are all common excuses for being late at work. Most bosses consider these excuses as legitimate if used reasonably. The problem starts when such things start happening on a repeated basis.
10. It could also be that late coming happens because the employees feel they could get away with it. If an employee is late on a few occasions, and the boss takes no action, then the employees would tend to take it easy and would not take the extra effort required to reach office on time.
11. Usually artists, designers, writers and many other professionals value personal freedom and do not like to be restrained by time considerations. For such people, a solution could be to introduce flexi-time, wherein they can turn up as they like within a time band, and leave after putting in the required number of hours. This would however not work on all types of jobs.
A recent research conducted by the University of Manchester concludes that:
* Workers who are very satisfied with their jobs are half as likely to be late in any month as those who are neutral about their job.
* Overall, 70% of workers claim to be on time to work and such workers tend to be older and married. Younger and single workers are more likely to be late at least once a month.
* Parents, especially of pre-school children, find it hard to juggle managing the kids along with arriving at work on time.
* Workers do pay attention to their employer's policies on lateness, both carrots and sticks. Strict penalties for lateness such as instant dismissal lead to better behaved workers but such harsh personnel policies apply to less than 10% of the workforce.
* Similarly, incentive pay schemes like bonuses lead to greater punctuality but the magnitude of this effect is quite small.
Any company worth its salt would not tolerate habitual late coming beyond a point, for it costs the business time and money, besides disrupting the work pattern. Most service rules are very clear on the fact that habitual late coming is a misconduct, and could be a cause for termination under extreme circumstances.