treadlightly wrote:Well, the pace of life is sometimes unsympathetic. If I have services down when a conference call is scheduled, you can bet my focus is on what counts and that is on customer facing services. That can throw me late, and I know it sometimes throws others late to my presentations. I always remember the guy walking in late may be a slacker or he may have worked harder to get to my presentation than I did. With the people I work with, it's much more likely to be the latter.flechero wrote:Or maybe just set the alarm 5 minutes earlier?treadlightly wrote:
I'm not saying punctuality isn't a hallmark of a productive person, but on the other hand every time a manager is hard on someone for showing up late, it's a little vote for more multitasking behind the wheel.
We're all adults... by the time you are gainfully employed, you know (or should know) how to be on time. Besides, the vast majority of people aren't "working" on their phone. They could show up a few minutes early and text a bit before clocking in, or while waiting for the meeting to start.
Blaming your boss for multitasking while driving to work has nothing to do with the price of tea in China.
As for me, personally, I'm an IT teleworker. I don't drive to work. I walk about 15 feet from my bedroom to my adjacent office. Why, you might ask, do I have it so easy when you have to contend with people blaming their bosses for the texting they are doing while they threaten to swap paint with you?
I credit time management skills. What others do in hours, I do in minutes. I work my shift and then study and work on what I call skunk projects. These are programming tasks my manager would likely not approve, but once completed off the company clock are expected to make our operations more efficient.
And I have a quick parable to illustrate. An executive officer, a network technician, a project manager, an applications developer, and a systems admin walk into a bar.
Fine, let 'em booze it up. I can do all their jobs. At least those portions of their jobs I wouldn't just automate.
You are probably like me in that you consider 5-10 minutes early to actually be "on time."
I think the distinction between habitually late (which much of the younger generation is) and being punctual is noteworthy. Someone who is late one day because something big/important/tragic happened is completely excusable and shouldn't be a reflection on their character.
Someone who is always late or always has a crisis of some kind, well... you get my point. Those people are probably texting in the car already and your scolding or a fine won't impact the frequency by much.
Carry on, Sir!
