Do You Get to Work Early, Late, on Barely on Time? (applying, paycheck)

[dcarney]

Barely on time or a little late. I sometimes leave early too. I have a critical skill that few would be able to do. I bring in BIG bucks for my company.

My boss recognizes this and I get special treatment.

Of course, most of my work is completed on a remote laptop so I bring it home and do work there too. So it all evens itself out, I suppose.

[mkpunk]

It honestly depends on my job. For my summer job I have to arrive exactly on-time but still arrive early. During the school year, it is typically barely on-time due a 6:45 call and a 20/30 minute drive. For my security guard work, it is super early.

[jc718]

I am a morning person. I get in 1 and 1/2 hours early. Sometimes 2 hours early...I hate the rush hour commute in NYC and I LOVE the peace and quiet in the office before everyone comes in. No I don't get extra compensation but that isn't why I do it.

[ipaper]

I get to work 30 minutes prior to start of shift. I go out on the production floor and talk with the off going shift, to see what issues they had during the night and what to expect or look out for, and to check production schedule. Then I go get my coffee and ready for our morning meeting at 7:00 am, every shift starts out with 30 minutes meeting before going on the production floor. But, lots of people come in exactly at 7:00 and a few a few minutes after.

[hunterseat]

I scoot in under the wire every day. Where I work it's common at all levels. We stay over, with or without overtime (not guaranteed). No one really cares.

I had a job that started at 6am and the boss was a stickler for punctuality. I managed to make it there on time.

[Scooby Snacks]

Originally Posted by Me007gold

If your not 15 minutes early, you're 15 minutes late

Negative. Any way you slice it, 15 minutes early is 15 minutes early. If your job requires you to be 15 minutes early, than your actual start time is 15 minutes earlier than they claim, in which case being there at, say, 6:45 rather than 7:00 means you're on time.

[rose88]

I like to be around 45 minutes early, just don't like the traffic and the people who eat my head from the morning

[jghorton]

While I never personally punched a clock, I can remember people who never seemed able to understand that "on time" meant "ready to work", not simply in the door. Most then took another 30-minutes to get a cup of coffee and chit-chat a bit before actually starting work. I noticed these same people rarely had a problem leaving for lunch or at the end of the day a few minutes early.

When time came for layoffs or the opportunity to work from home, an individual's demonstrated punctuality and self-discipline often played a big part in the decision.

[Creature of the Wheel]

I'm a habitual early bird.

[artillery77]

Originally Posted by Nlambert

It isn't a weakness to expect everyone to be punctual. ADD is no excuse. Too many people claim to have some type of illness that prohibits them from getting to work on time. That is a crutch. Get past it. I've got a blown out knee from an accident that the doctor won't replace for 6 more years (when I turn 40), degenerative disc disease where my S2 and S3 discs are almost non-existent at this point, fibromyalgia, and OCD. Never once has ANY of that affected my ability to be on time and do my job. I know some of these things can flare up, so I plan enough time to compensate for it. I have also learned that by sticking myself on a strict schedule, I tend to make myself get up and move which sometimes helps ease pain.


Managers know that many people will take advantage of every opportunity to get out of work if they can find one. This isn't applicable to everyone, but many do.


My current company has a flexible schedule and no boss breathing down your neck. We can set our hours as long as we get in 9 hrs per day. Because of this lack of a set schedule, folks trickle in anywhere from 6am-9am every day. Some take a 2-3 hr lunch at times and then leave early. They charge jobs for a full 9 hour day. That's stealing. The company has a contract to pay you for working 9 hr days and gives you the full trust that you do, yet you only work 4-5 hours before going home. Once caught, everyone including those of us who DO come in on time and work our hours suffer for it. Rules get tightened up and we have to pay the price for a poor co-worker. It's better to have someone monitor that and try to stop it before it gets that far.


If you've never owned or managed a business you may choose not to see how detrimental to a company this can be. But for those of us who are or have been in those positions it does hurt the bottom line.

Thank you for providing a great example of a boss people should flee from.

1. No, ADD is a pretty good excuse, especially when there's prescription drugs for it and my start range is well within the range you have at your job. Your crap that you have wrong are a pretty good excuse for me not having you lift and carry items....though I think I'll call you lazy for not lifting your fair share. You know how all those lazy achy people are with their....oh I can't carry anything carrying on they do.

2. Again, a Manager that just KNOWS who is "stealing" is exactly the type of **** pot manager people should flee. They're done managing at 9:05 am at your company. They don't know how to manage anything except recordkeeping, and even that doesn't work because people that start late...can stay late in most companies. Not too many work on the integrated mass assembly lines anymore or are opening a retail site.

3. I've managed some pretty large companies. I've run companies. I even founded a company. There are some positions where consistent on the dot starts correlate well with a role's success, but most do not.