The other day I was reading an article about tardiness in the workplace. The basic premise was that if for some unforeseen reason you are 20 minutes late for work and your job does not depend that you clock in at a certain hour and your performance is good, then it’s really not a big deal.
What is a big deal is when someone consistently shows up late and their work performance is, well let’s just say, less than to be desired.
Think about it. Would you have respect for someone who showed up at least once a week late for work and had no real excuse? Or would you respect the hard worker that got caught in traffic or had to take their child to the doctor every once in awhile?
Sadly, that’s the decision a lot of managers have to make and sometimes the people who deserve respect are the ones that get punished when policies are created for all employees to abide by, not just the people who break the rules.
As a manager, it may be more beneficial to look at each individual employee, their specific personal issues and most importantly their performance before creating large-scale policies. You may even find that employees will respect the organization even more, since respect is a two-way street.
