Come On, How Important is Being on Time?
Really, now how important is it to be on time? Does 15 minutes really make that much difference in the scope of n 8 hour work day? Maybe you have immediate answers to these questions (and I bet it’s because you are experienced with using an employee time tracking tool) but chances are you have an opinion but not all the stats to back up your thoughts.
Last week I read a blog post called Caroline4sumone. One of her posts was about her company hiring a woman who was known for being perpetually late. As a matter of fact, she continued this trend beginning the first day on Caroline’s team. While this part of the post was mildly interesting this wasn’t what immediately got me asking the importance of time questions.
Entertainingly enough, there was a wide range of responses to her blog post. It seemed that there were a lot of opinions as to whether or not Tardy Trudy was in the wrong. Here are a few excerpts from the reply page:
Frodo: Ah relax, being on time is overrated
Highpriestess: If they are 5mins late then it’s okay but if they are an hour late and make a habit of it then it’s uncalled for.
Paul: There is nothing wrong with being late the odd time but if it is consistent then it is a problem. And it is usually the people who are consistently late that have poor productivity. Also it pisses off the other team members who feel they have managed to get in on time and have to pick up with slack. I would work with them to improve their time keeping but ultimately I would let them go if it did not improve.
Basically, I use the premise that output is much more important than input… but how much does that even matter? Would I think differently if looking at an hourly employee or one who is salaried? If not, when would it begin to matter? And bottom line, when does it matter enough to make a not-so-fun change in the ol’ employee roster? Well, plug in the numbers and I’ll bet you get your answer:
L/60 x R x F = WC x 52 = YC/12 = MC (L = Average number of minutes an employee is late; R = Employee’s hourly pay rate; F – Average number of days per week the employee is late WC = Weekly cost; MC = Monthly cost; YC = Yearly Cost)
You had to do it, right? Even if you rounded off the numbers and calculated in your head what Tardy Trudy was costing the company on an annual basis, you were a little shocked that those small figures added up to a sizable impact on your bottom line. For some self entertainment, I’ve begun calling this theory the Theory of Being on Timeitivity… has this theory persuaded you to research an automated employee time tracking software yet?
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