Worker lateness costs business 66 million every year

Monday is the day when most of us are late for work; and 7 in 10 of us will lie and blame public transport

- 77% of workers admit to having lied about why they were late
- 65% of all lateness occurs on Mondays
- On average an employee is late for work by 10 minutes

Peninsula found the most common excuses for being late to be:

1) Public transport
2) Heavy traffic
3) Faking illness
4) Lost keys
5) Car accident
6) Trouble sleeping
7) The car wouldnít start
8) Burglary
9) Family illness
10) Other

Peninsula also quizzed workers on the silliest excuses they have used for being late:

- The dog ate my car keys
- I canít drive as Iím still drunk from last night
- I couldnít find anywhere to park
- I didnít sleep last night because my wife locked me out
- I canít come in because Iíve been arrested

Based on a polled survey of 2,149 employees from a variety of industries across the UK

Mike Huss, senior Employment Law Specialist at Peninsula BusinessWise said today:

Lateness and absenteeism are major problems for employers. It costs them over 66 million every year for relatively minor and infrequent lateness. Major problems would obviously cost considerably more. This shows the extent of the tremendous damage that it does to a company and also the subsequent effect on productivity. Lateness appears to have become a national epidemic, and bosses need to act sooner rather than later to minimise it.

It is worrying to note that bosses are not taking the issue of lateness seriously in the workplace. For it does not matter how capable the employee is, if they are not in the workplace they are no use to the employer, and thus have a negative impact on productivity. An absent employee, even for a few minutes, creates problems for management, other employees and customers.

Bosses should have systems in place enabling them to monitor the punctuality of the employees, in order to highlight any patterns such as particular days or certain times of the month. This therefore allows the employer to take any relevant action towards any individual who shows an unacceptable lack of punctuality.

It is no surprise that so many people lie and make up excuses as to why they were late, as members off staff do not want to tell their boss than they had a lie in. However this is not to say that reasons for lateness are always fabricated, employers are sympathetic to genuine reasons even though they still cause problems.

If an employer takes a sloppy attitude towards lateness and fails to discipline any repeat offenders, they can expect the indiscipline to spread thus creating a deep set company culture. This will not only have an adverse affect on productivity within the workplace, but also the creating and maintaining of business contacts and relationships which survival and profit so often rely upon.

When employers do ensure people understand and enforce the need for punctuality there is always improved productivity.