by Prabhjot Sukheja

Created on: January 23, 2012

You may have friends that are constantly late; their watch seems to be in relapse. You wait drumming your fingers or peer expectantly, seeing them running down the street, in the midst of open mouth apology. In comparison, punctuality at work is crucial, particularly during the probation period and persistence lateness is grounds for contraction of payment and disciplinary proceedings.

There are some people who are habitually late, it’s almost written in their DNA .They have little conception of time and cannot track its passing. Estimating journey time or that a journey has multiple variables attached to it, the congestion, the availability of a bus, an accident is vital. The individual usually has multiple things on the go and is haphazard and creative.

Starting a new job, you might be excited, desire to make a good impression and arrive early.  I have noticed that some old timers, individuals that have been in the job for a while, stroll in casually or stop for a cup of coffee and stay behind for those late minutes. Lateness in some companies is not seen as a problem, if the minutes are made up at the end of the day. In others, a couple of minutes delay and you maybe strided into the manager’s office and a phone call expected to notify the management of a delay.

Some people, genuinely have problems getting up in the morning, causations could include medication, long-term health difficulties, multiple jobs, or a dependence on drugs and alcohol. Other individuals have childcare commitments or carer responsibilities and a restricted window of opportunity to complete domestic and household responsibilities before leaving for work. They might not have the support of an extended family or the resources to source additional help.

Individuals who are bullied at work or hate the thought of going in may procrastinate and trigger internal dialogue, dragging themselves to the destination in question. Always, tempted to get off at the next stop and return home.

If returning to work after a long-term illness or mental health concern this may cause difficulty for a number of reasons and includes identification and labeling and how they feel about returning and the role itself.

The problem with labeling and the halo effect is that once an individual is tarred in this way it is difficult to alter behaviour

There are many reasons for lateness, some people assume the worse, and they imagine the employee is lazy, disinterested and unorganized. In actual fact, there could be a number of variables at play. Other co-workers can share time management strategies or incorporate ecologically sound strategies, such as lift share which can assist the late comer to change.

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