New research reveals what UK employees feel about being late, and suggests it’s time for businesses to loosen up.
At last someone has said it: “It’s OK to be late”. What a relief. It’s become an issue because hybrid working brings fewer excuses. You can’t blame the Tube, a flat tyre on your bike or Thameslink trains when all you have to do is get somewhere near your laptop or phone by 9.30am each day. In this era of homeworking “I couldn’t find the marmalade” is certainly a lot funnier than “they told us to go to the wrong platform, then the train ahead broke down”.
Office equipment supplier Brother has helpfully surveyed 1,000 workers to “uncover the attitudes on lateness and what we’re willing to risk being late to work for”.
Its key findings were that one in four Brits would rather spend longer in bed than be on time for work, more than a third of full-time office workers admitted to being late for work and only a fifth (19%) think it’s unacceptable to be late for a virtual meeting.
A suspiciously low three in 10 Brits said they would be late for work to attend a job interview. Perhaps the other seven just call in sick.
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Brother engaged life coach and behaviour expert Nick Hatter, to make us feel better about our tardiness. He said: “The reality is of course that life happens – and modern life is complex and volatile. Life is imperfect, and so are we. Many are juggling to meet the growing demands of work, childcare, while trying to squeeze in a social life, hobbies, studying, extra-curricular activities and of course, some sleep.”
Being late has a deep psychological root, he added: “From a young age, we are conditioned – or rather, shamed – into being on time. Perhaps we were given detention, shouted at by our parents and teachers, and such experiences can leave a deep and ingrained emotionally charged belief that being late is deeply unacceptable and shameful.”
As a result being late causes a lot of anxiety. “We worry that as adults we might be in big trouble like when we were children. We might then fall into a cognitive distortion such as catastrophic thinking, thinking that we might be fired, or we will lose a client, or some other catastrophic event.
“All of a sudden, running late feels like a life-or-death situation, as our heart begins to pound, and as adrenaline pumps, we begin to feel stressed, agitated, angry and lose our ability to think clearly.”
Hatter advises we cut back on our schedules and become pessimists about what we can achieve in a given chunk of time. “Expect the worst to happen, especially if it’s a really important meeting or unmissable appointment,” he says.
More demanding bosses might not like his next suggestion, however. “Accept ‘good enough’ and slightly lower performance standards – trying to perfectly complete things can be a recipe for lateness, as can ‘just one more thing’-itis. Accept the outcome of your timing and endeavours and stop trying to be perfect.” Empowering counsel indeed.
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One event that won’t be running late this weekend is the Succession. No, I don’t mean the next episode of that superb TV series featuring the outlandish behaviour of wannabe media tycoons the Roys, but the UK royal family’s succession event. The coronation of King Charles may be a fantastic display of pageantry but the thought of an extra day off is what is truly elevating the spirits of employees throughout the UK. Enjoy!
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