If you show up late and leave early then expect to get some pushback. If you show up late and then stay late I find most companies don't care.
I generally get to the office at 10:30, but then work a ten hour day.
Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
11–20 of 49 posts
Re: Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
#12Today I showed up at 9:06 and was told to go home for the day, and to come back on time on Monday. Get a new job. If what you say is true, and you can find work elsewhere, do so. If they're silly enough to throw away 7 hours of productivity over a 6 minute delay, fuck'em. For a customer-facing position, your happy ass should be in a seat and smiling fifteen minutes before the client shows up. For development work, th…
Yes and no.
Sending them home for being 6 minutes late is totally overkill (unless it's something that has occurred many times, and there have been warnings).
Quitting for being sent home for a day also seems like an extreme reaction, though, especially if you like the job otherwise.
I wouldn't call it time-fetishism, and I wouldn't say it's something limited to "older folks," that seems particularly unfair. I'm 24, and when people couldn't be bothered to show up on time, I was bothered by it as well. And I'm a developer. I know that it's not vital that "you be in by x-o-clock or no work will be done for the day," but it definitely creates a stigma toward the individual who roles in later than the rest of the team.
Re: Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
#13> Today I showed up at 9:06 and was told to go home for the day, and to come back on time on Monday.
This blows my mind. Are you a contractor or salaried? If you are salaried they are idiots (for throwing away a day of work while paying for it) and if you are a contractor I question their ability to require you to show up in the office a certain time...
I personally think that caring about "asses in seats" is a terrible policy and shows your employer doesn't trust you and you should consider moving on to another company. If you are getting your work done as expected then I'm not sure why people care if you are in the office on time.
Meetings are a different story, if you show up late to a meeting your are wasting a lot of time and it feels (regardless of your intent) disrespectful, this you should work on but showing up to work a few minutes late isn't a really issue IMHO.
Lastly this: "I’m underpaid, but it’s comfortable and low pressure." leads me to say GET OUT! Don't waste your life making less than you are worth for a boss who is going to get all pissy about 6 minutes. Developers, or at least most, don't "shut off" their brains when they leave the building. Sometimes problems are kicking around in my head long after I've left work and I've solved a number of problems in my off time (not actively working but I can't always fully control what I fixate on or think about). Because of this I don't any bullshit about being at work on time (though I'm normally on time or 10-15min early) or leaving a little early if I need to make another appointment. As long as I'm meeting expectations on the work I'm getting done I don't think it matters if you are a few minutes late every day.
Re: Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
#14"...and partially because he knows I could go work anywhere else and make more money."
This kind of thinking is the bigger problem. You COULD get hired and you COULD make more money...until you were always late and get fired.
Grow up.
Re: Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
#15"...and partially because he knows I could go work anywhere else and make more money."
This kind of thinking is the bigger problem. You COULD get hired and you COULD make more money...until you were always late and get fired.
Grow up.
Re: Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
#16Time to move on. For two reasons: one is that the habit of running late is tied the place it was developed, the other is that it has been blown out of proportion [1] at your current employer. In addition, if they sent you home for the day, then do they really need you?
Is punctuality useful? Yes, if it accomplishes something. Plenty of business meetings always start late because everyone is always running late. Other meetings always start on time, and running late is unproductive. Factory production lines also come to mind. But in an ordinary professional workplace the important thing is getting the work done.
Finally, Your boss sent you home for the day, you aren't getting along well. So again, it's probably time to move on.
Good luck.
[1] There are circumstances where running late a few minutes is unprofessional, e.g. a critical meeting, but not an ordinary one.
Re: Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
#17I noticed that most of the "fuck them" answers here are from people who interpret the situation in the most convenient way, that is to say, pointedly ignoring the general case and focusing on the specific.
OP says s/he's always late. But everybody responding "fuck the boss who sent you home" is explicitly assuming that OP being sent home is an isolated incident instead of part of a pattern. The thread title says always late to the office.
I think failing to show up on time as a pattern is destructive and disrespectful of colleagues. What is kind of amazing is that so many answers here are presuming a pattern (arbitrary and capricious boss) while at the same time overlooking a stated pattern (perpetually late employee).
Re: Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
#18Today I showed up at 9:06 and was told to go home for the day, and to come back on time on Monday. Get a new job. If what you say is true, and you can find work elsewhere, do so. If they're silly enough to throw away 7 hours of productivity over a 6 minute delay, fuck'em. For a customer-facing position, your happy ass should be in a seat and smiling fifteen minutes before the client shows up. For development work, th…
Yes and no. Sending them home for being 6 minutes late is totally overkill (unless it's something that has occurred many times, and there have been warnings). Quitting for being sent home for a day also seems like an extreme reaction, though, especially if you like the job otherwise. I wouldn't call it time-fetishism, and I wouldn't say it's something limited to "older folks," that seems particularly unfair. I'm 24,…
Teams where it's a stigma, especially when we all know that time is fluid and productivity varies widely, even in spite of product shipped are bullshit and are getting eaten, slowly but surely, by flexible companies, remote workers, and Stuff-as-a-Service.
Burn your timesheet, and focus on shipping.
EDIT:
There's literally no good reason, if you aren't facing customers, to sweat time variations, especially if doing so comes at the cost of developer productivity. Just because somebody is used to a bullshit time system tracing directly back to the factory shifts of yore doesn't mean that more enlightened folks should stick with it when better options are available.
Re: Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
#19> was told to go home for the day, and to come back on time on Monday.
This was an Old School gentle warning, use this day-off to think about what you want in your career, and whether this job is important to you. There are plenty of learned hacks to make yourself come in early.
Relative to the relationship with your boss. He may be taking your tardiness as sign that you're not serious about the work. Presumably, he wouldn't mind if you worked late into the evening, especially if you took on additional, more challenging assignments. Suggest reading on Managing-Up> http://www.forbes.com/sites/richkarlgaard/2014/06/14/12-easy...
Re: Ask HN: Always late to the office, is this OK?
#20Do you have a good reason (aside from habit) for being late to commitments? If not, fix the behavior -- it's annoying and disrespectful in US business norms.
If you have a good reason, explain it to your boss. I managed someone who lived a 40 minute drive away (that was variable) and absolutely could not leave earlier (because of a private issue) -- we had a daily scrum in the morning and he was always late -- he explained the issue and we accommodated.
Or --- get a job that doesn't care when you show up (there are A LOT of tech jobs like this).