Dear Sir/Madam,
Please note that some of our employees are frequently arriving late to the office. Our management has asked them for reasons, but their explanations are not deemed valid. As a result, management has decided to address this issue. In some cases, employees have genuine reasons such as a parent's illness, a punctured vehicle, heavy traffic, etc. I believe that if the reason is truly valid, the individual should not be penalized. However, how can I determine whether the explanation provided is valid?
Additionally, some employees directly inform me via phone, but by the end of the month, I have no record of these communications as they are only verbal. Could you please advise on how to maintain a record of such verbal notifications?
I kindly request guidance on a policy for dealing with latecomers and how to document verbal notifications.
Regards,
Sujata
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)
Amend(0)
10Please note that some of our employees are frequently arriving late to the office. Our management has asked them for reasons, but their explanations are not deemed valid. As a result, management has decided to address this issue. In some cases, employees have genuine reasons such as a parent's illness, a punctured vehicle, heavy traffic, etc. I believe that if the reason is truly valid, the individual should not be penalized. However, how can I determine whether the explanation provided is valid?
Additionally, some employees directly inform me via phone, but by the end of the month, I have no record of these communications as they are only verbal. Could you please advise on how to maintain a record of such verbal notifications?
I kindly request guidance on a policy for dealing with latecomers and how to document verbal notifications.
Regards,
Sujata
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear Sujata,
Verbal intimation cannot be tracked. You can create an HRIS for attendance time. Whoever is coming after the stipulated time, mark them late. You can allow a late occurrence for say 3 or 4 times in a month after which you should have the freedom to tackle the situation. If nothing else, you can ask the latecomers to draft a mail and inform the reason for their late arrival. The possibility is that when they get to know that now things are becoming official and they'd have to give the reason in writing, they may reduce the practice.
All the best :-)
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Verbal intimation cannot be tracked. You can create an HRIS for attendance time. Whoever is coming after the stipulated time, mark them late. You can allow a late occurrence for say 3 or 4 times in a month after which you should have the freedom to tackle the situation. If nothing else, you can ask the latecomers to draft a mail and inform the reason for their late arrival. The possibility is that when they get to know that now things are becoming official and they'd have to give the reason in writing, they may reduce the practice.
All the best :-)
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Hi Sujata,
Ankita has given good suggestion and it will surely help you to control the late coming.
In some organization you see the manager’s firing their staff, but I personally feel in order to stop the behavior instead of firing the staff member, you will have to be patient.
Infact typically, the best way to transform habitual tardiness into consistent promptness is by being completely honest will the staff member. Don't let anger get the best of you as you explain that when they arrive behind schedule, it causes major problems for the entire business. Let the late employee share their reasons for the habitual lateness. Ask them to come up with a way to break the pattern. By involving staff in the process, you'll see much better results than if you just told them what to do.
Always remember to keep your cool and screaming and yelling will just cause the employee to become defensive and possibly make him to revolt . Staying calm will actually work quickly to resolve this problem.
Hope this will help you to resolve your problem.
Regards
Anita
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Ankita has given good suggestion and it will surely help you to control the late coming.
In some organization you see the manager’s firing their staff, but I personally feel in order to stop the behavior instead of firing the staff member, you will have to be patient.
Infact typically, the best way to transform habitual tardiness into consistent promptness is by being completely honest will the staff member. Don't let anger get the best of you as you explain that when they arrive behind schedule, it causes major problems for the entire business. Let the late employee share their reasons for the habitual lateness. Ask them to come up with a way to break the pattern. By involving staff in the process, you'll see much better results than if you just told them what to do.
Always remember to keep your cool and screaming and yelling will just cause the employee to become defensive and possibly make him to revolt . Staying calm will actually work quickly to resolve this problem.
Hope this will help you to resolve your problem.
Regards
Anita
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear Sujata,
Ms. Ankita and Ms. Anita have given very valuable suggestions to control the latecoming in your organization.
In addition, creating and maintaining discipline is not the responsibility of the HR Department only. Let other individuals also share the responsibility.
1. Identify the habitual latecomers and discuss with their HODs. Let them also share the burden.
2. Counsel the respective employees regularly and help them understand the adverse consequences of tardiness, i.e., other employees may also take advantage of the late arrivals.
3. If the problem persists, put the names of latecomers on the notice board with the management's confidence. Also, generate and maintain daily latecoming reports and send them for respective HODs' signatures.
Note: As suggested by Ankita and Anita, always have patience and maturity in dealing with the situation.
"Regular counseling and addressing the latecomers yield positive results. It is my practical experience."
With Best Wishes
From India, New Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Ms. Ankita and Ms. Anita have given very valuable suggestions to control the latecoming in your organization.
In addition, creating and maintaining discipline is not the responsibility of the HR Department only. Let other individuals also share the responsibility.
1. Identify the habitual latecomers and discuss with their HODs. Let them also share the burden.
2. Counsel the respective employees regularly and help them understand the adverse consequences of tardiness, i.e., other employees may also take advantage of the late arrivals.
3. If the problem persists, put the names of latecomers on the notice board with the management's confidence. Also, generate and maintain daily latecoming reports and send them for respective HODs' signatures.
Note: As suggested by Ankita and Anita, always have patience and maturity in dealing with the situation.
"Regular counseling and addressing the latecomers yield positive results. It is my practical experience."
With Best Wishes
From India, New Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Apart from what Ankita and Anita said, my thoughts on this provocative behavior are:
1) Late coming is an annoying habit and needs to be curtailed, if not nipped totally. The sight of late Latifs gets on your nerves and makes your blood boil because when the whole office plunged into work, they walk into the office with the gait and style that may be tempting even to the most stylish film star to copy them. They cast glances of pity at others who are punctual and wear the 'how smart I am' look. They are the 'Tapori' type.
2) There is another kind. They come to the office late running, sweating, and gasping for breath to give the impression that but for some problem, they would have been on time. They keep a story ready to narrate if asked for the reason for being late. In fact, they will be eager to await being questioned since they will be enthusiastic to reel off the story for the next one hour until lunchtime, adding a lot of spice (masala) to it in such a way that it may give the best scriptwriters of films a run for their life. Every time, they have a different story, and that is original, to be fair to them. They are the storytellers.
3) There is the third kind. You should only see them to believe. He will come to the office, walking slowly, apparently soaking in pain (not in sweat) with drooping looks, sorrow-filled eyes, and a grief-stricken face. He will try to impress that they are in great trouble to preempt any questioning or at least to douse the initial burst of fire from the departmental head. Nobody ventures to ask him what happened for fear of breaching a dam brimming with gushing water. If someone commits that mistake, he will burst into buckets full of tears, wailing at GOD as to why He singled him out on this planet for heaping all the sorrows on him, making the mood in the office melancholic. They act so convincingly that they give complex to the most veteran film actors who enact scenes of a weeping 'Babul' (father) at his daughter's 'Bidai' or such other tear-jerking scenes. They are 'I am always the victim' type.
Sujatha, no wonder, I am not surprised at your predicament as to how to find out, in the midst of such fine acting talent, whose case is genuine and whose case is fake. You can try the following:
1) It is difficult to curb late coming unless it is firmly driven down the throats of employees that this organization as a matter of policy does not condone late coming. Therefore, frame a policy and put the employees on notice of it.
2) It is not possible for everyone to be punctual on all 30 days in a month. Therefore, you need to consider genuine cases. As Ankita suggested, you may allow three occasions in a month in practice, but you need not spell it in your policy since the employees may take it for granted that they can be late for at least on three occasions. They may come late, though there is no reason for them to be late. As a matter of policy, late coming shall not be permitted. That shall be the message to the employees.
3) You need to classify latecomers into habitual ones and occasional ones to adopt different strategies of action. As Ankita suggested, you can adopt an attendance tracking system for this purpose.
4) This classification makes your task easy to find out who is genuine and who is faking a reason.
5) Another way to catch them on the wrong foot is to ask a few questions about the reason they offer. For example, if someone cites illness in the family and going to the hospital as the reason for being late. Ask what is the illness, which doctor he visited, and what medicines the doctor prescribed. If the reason is false, he will be uncomfortable and stumble for answers. The discomfort will dissuade him from being late next time since he may not like to be grilled every time. Be tactful in questioning. You should not make him feel that he is grilled.
6) Anita cautioned to be patient with latecomers. But my advice is to be selectively patient with latecomers depending upon the number of occasions or habitual character, etc. In right cases, you need not hide your displeasure over such behavior.
6) Take action as per your rules in case of persistent and unrelenting cases.
B. Saikumar
HR & Labor Law Advisor
Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
1) Late coming is an annoying habit and needs to be curtailed, if not nipped totally. The sight of late Latifs gets on your nerves and makes your blood boil because when the whole office plunged into work, they walk into the office with the gait and style that may be tempting even to the most stylish film star to copy them. They cast glances of pity at others who are punctual and wear the 'how smart I am' look. They are the 'Tapori' type.
2) There is another kind. They come to the office late running, sweating, and gasping for breath to give the impression that but for some problem, they would have been on time. They keep a story ready to narrate if asked for the reason for being late. In fact, they will be eager to await being questioned since they will be enthusiastic to reel off the story for the next one hour until lunchtime, adding a lot of spice (masala) to it in such a way that it may give the best scriptwriters of films a run for their life. Every time, they have a different story, and that is original, to be fair to them. They are the storytellers.
3) There is the third kind. You should only see them to believe. He will come to the office, walking slowly, apparently soaking in pain (not in sweat) with drooping looks, sorrow-filled eyes, and a grief-stricken face. He will try to impress that they are in great trouble to preempt any questioning or at least to douse the initial burst of fire from the departmental head. Nobody ventures to ask him what happened for fear of breaching a dam brimming with gushing water. If someone commits that mistake, he will burst into buckets full of tears, wailing at GOD as to why He singled him out on this planet for heaping all the sorrows on him, making the mood in the office melancholic. They act so convincingly that they give complex to the most veteran film actors who enact scenes of a weeping 'Babul' (father) at his daughter's 'Bidai' or such other tear-jerking scenes. They are 'I am always the victim' type.
Sujatha, no wonder, I am not surprised at your predicament as to how to find out, in the midst of such fine acting talent, whose case is genuine and whose case is fake. You can try the following:
1) It is difficult to curb late coming unless it is firmly driven down the throats of employees that this organization as a matter of policy does not condone late coming. Therefore, frame a policy and put the employees on notice of it.
2) It is not possible for everyone to be punctual on all 30 days in a month. Therefore, you need to consider genuine cases. As Ankita suggested, you may allow three occasions in a month in practice, but you need not spell it in your policy since the employees may take it for granted that they can be late for at least on three occasions. They may come late, though there is no reason for them to be late. As a matter of policy, late coming shall not be permitted. That shall be the message to the employees.
3) You need to classify latecomers into habitual ones and occasional ones to adopt different strategies of action. As Ankita suggested, you can adopt an attendance tracking system for this purpose.
4) This classification makes your task easy to find out who is genuine and who is faking a reason.
5) Another way to catch them on the wrong foot is to ask a few questions about the reason they offer. For example, if someone cites illness in the family and going to the hospital as the reason for being late. Ask what is the illness, which doctor he visited, and what medicines the doctor prescribed. If the reason is false, he will be uncomfortable and stumble for answers. The discomfort will dissuade him from being late next time since he may not like to be grilled every time. Be tactful in questioning. You should not make him feel that he is grilled.
6) Anita cautioned to be patient with latecomers. But my advice is to be selectively patient with latecomers depending upon the number of occasions or habitual character, etc. In right cases, you need not hide your displeasure over such behavior.
6) Take action as per your rules in case of persistent and unrelenting cases.
B. Saikumar
HR & Labor Law Advisor
Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Further to what I said, see Bhrdwaj Ramesh' s post on the line of action. B.Saikumar
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Sai sir,
Though I really get irritated when people walk in late, the way you characterized them actually made me laugh.
Surprisingly, I found your post so true and have all 3 characters at my workplace.
And Sujata, indeed, Sai sir pointed out a big thing - do not suggest to them or communicate to them that being late 3 times would be tolerated; otherwise, you'd notice them being late all 3 times. This will help them by not making up reasons for those three instances, thinking, "3 times it's allowed."
Another suggestion -
I have informed all my staff members as well:
1. If an employee calls up or informs his/her HOD, supervisor, or HR about coming in late (no matter how genuine the case may be), they would still receive a late remark. Informing the office about late arrival is our moral duty, and we can't expect a reward (in terms of lateness allowance) for it.
2. If a person is going for a meeting and will be arriving late, this will be considered only if:
a. The person informs HR via email, keeping the concerned supervisor/HOD in the loop.
b. The supervisor also approves the same.
Point 2 was introduced by me so that the marketing team cannot misuse the "revoke late mark for meeting" scheme.
Hope this helps you. :-)
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Though I really get irritated when people walk in late, the way you characterized them actually made me laugh.
Surprisingly, I found your post so true and have all 3 characters at my workplace.
And Sujata, indeed, Sai sir pointed out a big thing - do not suggest to them or communicate to them that being late 3 times would be tolerated; otherwise, you'd notice them being late all 3 times. This will help them by not making up reasons for those three instances, thinking, "3 times it's allowed."
Another suggestion -
I have informed all my staff members as well:
1. If an employee calls up or informs his/her HOD, supervisor, or HR about coming in late (no matter how genuine the case may be), they would still receive a late remark. Informing the office about late arrival is our moral duty, and we can't expect a reward (in terms of lateness allowance) for it.
2. If a person is going for a meeting and will be arriving late, this will be considered only if:
a. The person informs HR via email, keeping the concerned supervisor/HOD in the loop.
b. The supervisor also approves the same.
Point 2 was introduced by me so that the marketing team cannot misuse the "revoke late mark for meeting" scheme.
Hope this helps you. :-)
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear Sujatha,
This late coming is a practice in all the manufacturing industries as well as offices. I suggest the following to implement immediately:
1) Give a grace period of 10 minutes every day to allow employees to reach the office.
2) If anybody arrives late, ask them to seek permission from the concerned Head of Department (HOD) and the Personnel & Administration (P&A) HOD.
3) Permission for tardiness should be granted only twice a month.
4) Those exceeding the limit of two instances will face Loss of Pay (LOP) to prevent recurrence in the future.
Regards,
GANESH
From India, Hyderabad
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
This late coming is a practice in all the manufacturing industries as well as offices. I suggest the following to implement immediately:
1) Give a grace period of 10 minutes every day to allow employees to reach the office.
2) If anybody arrives late, ask them to seek permission from the concerned Head of Department (HOD) and the Personnel & Administration (P&A) HOD.
3) Permission for tardiness should be granted only twice a month.
4) Those exceeding the limit of two instances will face Loss of Pay (LOP) to prevent recurrence in the future.
Regards,
GANESH
From India, Hyderabad
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear Sujata,
I hope you will give answers to my below concerns:
1) Does late coming bother you or your Head/Plant Head?
2) Is the Head/Plant Head ignorant about late coming, or are they conniving the subject matter?
3) Are the employees who leave late among the late comers?
4) If possible, can you plan a flexi-time policy for latecomers (who generally leave late)?
5) Is the work nature of your establishment such that you need all people inside the establishment on time?
Thank you.
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
I hope you will give answers to my below concerns:
1) Does late coming bother you or your Head/Plant Head?
2) Is the Head/Plant Head ignorant about late coming, or are they conniving the subject matter?
3) Are the employees who leave late among the late comers?
4) If possible, can you plan a flexi-time policy for latecomers (who generally leave late)?
5) Is the work nature of your establishment such that you need all people inside the establishment on time?
Thank you.
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Good morning Members,
Greetings for the day!!!
If they do honestly want to come but they're always late, there is probably some fairly mechanical reason why they're late, perhaps to do with their commute (they have to take children to school? there are few trains?) and this could be easily solved by rescheduling. Or perhaps it's their work practices: they look at mail before the meeting and get distracted, and that too could be easily solved by just drinking coffee away from the computer in the meeting room before it kicks off.
On the other hand, perhaps some developers don't honestly find the meetings useful, and that's a great chance to reconsider the agenda and existence of the meetings. Find out what they need to know to do their job, what they find useful, what they find boring. If the meeting is useful to the manager but not very useful to the developers, perhaps you should change to having short daily one-on-ones. If they like to be aware of what's going on but they resent the time taken, perhaps you can use some alternative form.
Strategies based on token punishment or humiliation for being late sound like a good way to make sure the bodies are present and the souls are absent. (Unless the whole team really supports the idea, including the "offenders.")
Regards,
Shubha
Fb Id:
From India, Patna
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Greetings for the day!!!
If they do honestly want to come but they're always late, there is probably some fairly mechanical reason why they're late, perhaps to do with their commute (they have to take children to school? there are few trains?) and this could be easily solved by rescheduling. Or perhaps it's their work practices: they look at mail before the meeting and get distracted, and that too could be easily solved by just drinking coffee away from the computer in the meeting room before it kicks off.
On the other hand, perhaps some developers don't honestly find the meetings useful, and that's a great chance to reconsider the agenda and existence of the meetings. Find out what they need to know to do their job, what they find useful, what they find boring. If the meeting is useful to the manager but not very useful to the developers, perhaps you should change to having short daily one-on-ones. If they like to be aware of what's going on but they resent the time taken, perhaps you can use some alternative form.
Strategies based on token punishment or humiliation for being late sound like a good way to make sure the bodies are present and the souls are absent. (Unless the whole team really supports the idea, including the "offenders.")
Regards,
Shubha
Fb Id:
From India, Patna
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)Looking for something specific? - Join & Be Part Of Our Community and get connected with the right people who can help. Our AI-powered platform provides real-time fact-checking, peer-reviewed insights, and a vast historical knowledge base to support your search.