Let’s face it: Being late for work sucks. But when you show up to work and/or meetings on time, people feel good about you. You feel good about you. Things feel “complete.” 

So why are some people habitually late? What can be done?

Two things here. One technique is to actually think through the ripple effects of being late, and then think through the actions needed (all the preparation and travel time) to be somewhere five minutes ahead of schedule.  Especially note the “MUST LEAVE BY” time!

As someone who values my minutes, I’ve often balked on that ‘five minutes early’ idea, as I felt I was wasting that time.  Bzzt. Wrong answer!  Always a better impression to be timely than tardy. So, to make that time useful, I now bring some of my in-box reading material.

Second, if waking up late is habitual problem, there’s a company called Snoozester that will give you a wake up call every morning if you want (or at whatever time or date you need)—and they even have a snooze feature so you get another call in ten minutes. I’m not endorsing them per se, but for as little as four bucks a month it might help someone get going in the morning.  (Their website says you can try them out for free.)

Of course, some excuses are just gems. Here are a few of my favs: 
- Sorry I’m late – I was asleep when the alarm went off.

- Boss: Why are you late?
  Worker: I was doing something very important.
  Boss: What was that?
  Worker: Sleeping.

- I don’t know what’s up — for some reason I thought it was Saturday.

- Well, my spouse was suddenly “in the mood,” and … well, do you want me to go on?

- My cat must have gotten into some garbage last night, because she came home all gooey and greasy. I just couldn’t let her in the house like that, so I HAD to have her a bath, and you know how bathing a cat goes . . .

 (add your favorite “late” excuse below)

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Filed in Business, Opinion, Motivation, Management