5 Minutes Early Is On Time; On Time Is Late; Late Is Unacceptable

[ZLoth]

From Forbes:

5 Minutes Early Is On Time; On Time Is Late; Late Is Unacceptable

I have a magic pill to sell you. It will help you make more money, be happier, look thinner, and have better relationships. It's a revolutionary new pharmaceutical product called Late-No-More. Just one dose every day will allow you to show up on time, greatly enhancing your life and the lives of those around you.

All joking aside, being late is unacceptable. While that sounds harsh, it's the truth and something that should be said more often. I don't care if you're attending a dinner party, a conference call, or a coffee meeting — your punctuality says a lot about you.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[Buffaboy]

It seems like the closer I am to my job the later I tend to be. So I always strive to get there 15 minutes early.

[noelbotevera]

I kinda just got used to deadlines. Do the task, do more things, send it in. Of course, being late worries me, but not too much. Just because I missed something by a minute doesn't mean that I have to suffer a severe punishment (and trust me, I'm usually sending things in early).

[jeffandnicole]

I've seen this hung up in various offices, places, etc.

When I arrive late, I simply make up for it by leaving early.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm usually one for getting where I'm going early.  But with that said, I'm not going to flip the hell out if someone is "on time."  On time is on time, if you wanted someone there early then say so.

[kkt]

From Forbes:
5 Minutes Early Is On Time; On Time Is Late; Late Is Unacceptable

I am reminded of Office Space:

Joanna: You know what, Stan, if you want me to wear 37 pieces of flair, like your pretty boy over there, Brian, why don't you just make the minimum 37 pieces of flair?

[ZLoth]

To me, it all comes down to mutual respect for each other's resources. Yes, time is a resource. If I want people to show up on time (or a few minutes early) to my meetings, I had better show up on time to their meetings. You build in a history of punctuality so that when something goes really really wrong, it is treated as a major exception, not as a repeat occurrence.

Of course, I'm the guy who is frustrated by the fact that if your device interfaces with the outside world, then it should be able to set the time automatically from it, whether it be via the Internet via Network Time Protocol (NTP), Global Positioning Satellite (GPS), Cell Phone, Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS) (if the station has the clock set correctly), and through the air via WWV/WWVH.

[Brandon]

From Forbes:
5 Minutes Early Is On Time; On Time Is Late; Late Is Unacceptable

I am reminded of Office Space:

Joanna: You know what, Stan, if you want me to wear 37 pieces of flair, like your pretty boy over there, Brian, why don't you just make the minimum 37 pieces of flair?

And my answer...

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/office-space/images/665465/title/joanna-office-space-photo

[empirestate]

Meh; not to diminish the importance of punctuality, but this article petulantly overstates the issue, in my opinion. Perhaps it's just my line of work, but chronic lateness is largely self-enforcing: those who are prone to it simply tend to enjoy less employment than others.

I'm also not entirely on board with the "early is on time, on time is late" credo. The details of my commute are such that I only have certain trains that get me to work. If all goes well, I'll naturally be there with some amount of leeway, and if there's a delay, it's largely beyond my control. Occasionally I've been hired for a job with a specific start time, then been told that I was expected to arrive "15 minutes early". My response to that is simply that my arrival is contingent upon train timetables, which may not allow me to be early by a specified amount. If the client wants to change the start time to something earlier, then I can catch an earlier train, and of course they'll be invoiced for the additional hours.


iPhone

[jwolfer]

-enforcing: those who are prone to it l. Occasionally I've been hired for a job with a specific start time, then been told that I was expected to arrive "15 minutes early".

iPhone

I worked for a large company  call center that required arrival 15 minute early to get logged on to system and be taking calls. Someone sued and everyone got a check for in compensated work a few years later

[jwolfer]

If someone thinks on time is late then going over alotted time is just as bad

[Max Rockatansky]

-enforcing: those who are prone to it l. Occasionally I've been hired for a job with a specific start time, then been told that I was expected to arrive "15 minutes early".

iPhone

I worked for a large company  call center that required arrival 15 minute early to get logged on to system and be taking calls. Someone sued and everyone got a check for in compensated work a few years later

I remember working for a company like that briefly for a couple years after I was out of highway patrol.  I was on salary but they made everyone line up 15 minutes in advance of their shift for some reason.  They ended up getting sued too and had to pay out a class action award.  I even got a couple bucks in the mail...I bailed after 2 years after because of how bat shit crazy the owner's were.

[ET21]

I'm always early to everything, mainly because I try to time things out down to the minute lol

[Max Rockatansky]

Well what's going to make this practice even more interesting when "exempt" salary status moves up to 47.5k roughly later this year.  Basically that means that everyone below that line is going to have to clock in and be paid overtime.  I'd say that was a long overdue bump from the mid-20s it was floating around in for the last decade or so.  So much for those "we expect 60 hour work weeks." 

[GCrites]

I hate it when people show up early. I'm usually trying to get something out of the way before they arrive.

[Scott5114]

I wish the IRS would require employers to account to the minute instead of allowing rounding by 15-minute increments. Some supervisors pressure you to clock in at :53, which rounds you off to :00 (your "actual" scheduled start time). So you just lose that 7 minutes of time. But on the other hand, there are some employees that won't clock out at :21, they'll stand in the hallway vacantly staring at the clock until it hits :23 to get that extra 15 minutes of pay.

[74/171FAN]

I wish the IRS would require employers to account to the minute instead of allowing rounding by 15-minute increments. Some supervisors pressure you to clock in at :53, which rounds you off to :00 (your "actual" scheduled start time). So you just lose that 7 minutes of time. But on the other hand, there are some employees that won't clock out at :21, they'll stand in the hallway vacantly staring at the clock until it hits :23 to get that extra 15 minutes of pay.

I never had that problem when I worked at my restaurant and retail jobs.  Obviously they had rules on how early you could clock in.  (about 2-5 minutes before start time) 
I would not think that those type of jobs would consider rounding by 15 minute increments though because I know people would take full advantage of that.  (especially if someone was sent home early)

[jeffandnicole]

Thankfully, I was never in jobs where they rounded like that.  Overall, I didn't have that many part-time jobs either.  My first p/t job lasted 5 years, and we got paid for every minute we were clocked in.  My job in a bank doing credit card processing we didn't actually clock in (the boss maintained the timesheet).  On the NJ Turnpike, my swipe card which would open and close the lane was basically 'proof' I was there, but we got paid for our entire 8 hour shift regardless if I worked a shorter amount of time because I was relieved early (or came in late), or a longer amount of time because I was relieved late.  I was in a pattern for several weeks where my relief person was chronically late, so that wasn't too much fun.

[1995hoo]

Regarding "early is on time," one of the better-known proponents of that was Tom Coughlin (former coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Giants). I believe I read he attempted to fine players who showed up at the announced meeting time instead of coming early, although the NFLPA put a stop to that pretty quickly. He had a lot of silly rules, including what type of socks players could and couldn't wear when travelling.

[catch22]

A manager I worked for a long time ago had a nifty rule to get all of us line supervisors to her staff meetings on time:  "Last one in gets to take the meeting minutes."  I only got tagged once in two years. 

[8.Lug]

I wish the IRS would require employers to account to the minute instead of allowing rounding by 15-minute increments. Some supervisors pressure you to clock in at :53, which rounds you off to :00 (your "actual" scheduled start time). So you just lose that 7 minutes of time. But on the other hand, there are some employees that won't clock out at :21, they'll stand in the hallway vacantly staring at the clock until it hits :23 to get that extra 15 minutes of pay.

Don't you have any idea just how annoying that would be for everyone involved? The place you work will just make you punch in at your exact start time or else you'll get in trouble. I know - because NY started this stupid 7min rule and now none of us can punch in before 7min early or we get docked for "unauthorized overtime" whereas before we just wouldn't get paid for it. Now I have to walk all the fucking way back to the time clock after I finish my coffee and donut to punch in.

Aside from people utilizing public transportation - Why is it so hard for people to just get to work on time - and to just work til their shift ends? Why is it so difficult to have some work ethic? Jesus fucking christ people.

[kkt]

Wouldn't it be nice if workplaces didn't force employees to work unpaid minutes due to rounding and employees were honest enough not to skip out early due to rounding?  I mean, 7 minutes either way isn't going to make or break you.

[nexus73]

You can always make more money.  No one can make more time.  When your clock makes the final gong, you're a goner!

Time management is a skill that should be taught in schools. 

Rick

[Scott5114]

I wish the IRS would require employers to account to the minute instead of allowing rounding by 15-minute increments. Some supervisors pressure you to clock in at :53, which rounds you off to :00 (your "actual" scheduled start time). So you just lose that 7 minutes of time. But on the other hand, there are some employees that won't clock out at :21, they'll stand in the hallway vacantly staring at the clock until it hits :23 to get that extra 15 minutes of pay.

Don't you have any idea just how annoying that would be for everyone involved? The place you work will just make you punch in at your exact start time or else you'll get in trouble. I know - because NY started this stupid 7min rule and now none of us can punch in before 7min early or we get docked for "unauthorized overtime" whereas before we just wouldn't get paid for it. Now I have to walk all the fucking way back to the time clock after I finish my coffee and donut to punch in.

I used to work at a Burger King that accounted to the minute, and nobody sweated it if you clocked in at :58 or even occasionally :02 or :03. Of course, with the wages we were talking, clocking in a minute early only got you 9¢, so nobody really had incentive to abuse it at all and it would have cost the company more to police it. Even where I work now, though, a minute would only cost them 19¢ (and I only work 36 hours a week, so overtime is irrelevant).

It's all a matter of company culture, really.

Another irritating thing about where I work is it's highly encouraged to clock in at :53, but a grievous sin to clock in at :01. I get paid the same either way.

[1995hoo]

All y'all would go nuts dealing with billable hours measured in tenths of an hour.