A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
Our Goals
I'm gen x. I'm always anxious about being on time because of how I was raised (thanks Mom). My partner is older than me and she's ok with being late. This isn't an age thing. It's a personality thing.
They're trying to divide us by sowing division amongst generations. The most wealthy are the enemy. They own everything and we must join together to take it back.
Sorry, but if you're expected at 10 you should arrive at 10. Doesn't matter if it is work, a meet-up with friends or family, a date, or whatever. People schedule things around you, they'll expect you at 10, not 10 minutes later. So if you come late, it means you're not respecting other people's time, which means you don't respect other people.
I'm Gen X and the last job I had that required me to work a specific shift was in the kitchen of a pizza place in 1988.
In my first job after college, I asked the business administrator what hours I was expected to work, and she was noticeably confused by the question. She told me most folks show up around 9.l, but made it clear that it was up to me.
In my next job, I asked how to request PTO, and my boss told me he doesn't care about the record keeping. He said just let him know when I won't be there, and as long as everything keeps working he doesn't care if I'm ever there.
Even in my current position when they introduced time clocks and we had to clock in before our start time, we were allowed to specify our start time. I chose 10:00am. I normally get in around 7am, so I figured if I'm not going to be in by 10, I'll just take the day off.
Damn, what field are you working in that has that much flexibility? That's pretty unheard of, at least in the US.
Prolly High end professional type jobs although those require experience before daddy will permit this level of autonomy
If you need to be there at a specific time, be professional and be there. If other workers are depending on you to be there, be there. Being tardy just ‘cause, is pretty pathetic. In an ideal world, none of us would have to work. But we do, so show up.
The C-suite boss where I work complained about being in the office at 7 am and seeing empty desks.
This was pre-pandemic.
The thing was, policies in place at the time allowed employees to work from home up to two days per week, and flex hours were permitted as long as the core hours of 9am to 3pm were covered. It just sounded insane to everyone.
They can fuck off with that. Everyone else is there on time because they're adults, why are you special? All those people left 10 minutes earlier than the absolute minimum of time in order to account for traffic problems, etc. So can you.
Hang on Gen X once the boomer population dies out you're next in the ongoing war to keep generations hating each other. You may get lucky and the future articles will skip over you and go directly to the "uptight, low tolerance Millennials"
These articles are such overgeneralized bullshit just to get people mad at each other. I bet there are older workers that are always late to work and I bet there are young workers that are on time and do amazing work. Yet nuance like that doesn't drive angry clicks and comments.
I'm looking forward to it. GenX here, fuck all of you and fuck all of this. I just want to spend time with my family and friends.
I don't think anyone outside of GenX understands how fucked GenX is. We are jaded AF You're free to come for us but fuck around and find out.
Lol as if fuck around and find out is exclusive to one generation.
No previous generation has ever wanted to spend time with family and friends before! This is unprecedented!! Every single old person has only ever wanted to go to work and help create value for shareholders by fucking over the disadvantaged!!!
I mean...yeah?
I bet there are older workers that are always late to work
I've employed several, and in my experience they're usually the ones who spend most of their time at the bottom of a bottle.
Low tolerance millennials?
If anything millennials are just becoming more and more radicalized against the elites and the unhealthy work "ethics" they had to endure.
Good on the next generations if they dare standing up for themselves.
Some of us. A lot of us are just like the stereotype of our boomer parents.
Millennials are reversing the trend and getting more progressive as they age contrary to all other studied generations
https://www.ft.com/content/c361e372-769e-45cd-a063-f5c0a7767cf4
I personally don't want to hear anything about coming in late when I usually am the last one to leave the office in the evening.
If I’m always expected to work half an hour late, showing up to work ten minutes late is early as long as no one is waiting on me.
Ten minutes late to a meeting? Go somewhere else and make someone else's life harder. Ten minutes late to holding a chair down? I don't care if you're on the moon, just get your shit done.
The mouth pieces for the ruling class really love pumping out articles to drive division between us…
Thanks for pointing that out. Its like we have multiple levels of control mechanisms ensuring our eternal enslavement.
Sounds like the Peter principle at work, ensuring that Parkinson's law will be exemplified.
If your employees are living their lives to the clock, they're counting down the seconds rather than ticking off their tasks.
Can't really agree here. If you have an agreement on when your work starts, you should honor it. If it doesn't matter when you start working, have flexible hours put into your contract.
In some fields, this behavior would just lead to someone else having to do your work. Not very cool
I feel like for some employers this is a one way thing, come in 10 minutes late? How dare you breach our contract. Oh you have to stay 10 minutes late because a meeting has overrun? It's part of the job!
Obviously not all employers are like this, but there are so many that are and don't afford you the same flexibility that you have to give them in their eyes.
Coming to work 10 minutes later than the agreed time is just not on time as finishing 10 minutes later. Both can happen once in a while and I general I don't see an issue, e.g. there's been an accident on the road you use to work? Not your fault, but you weren't there on time. 10 minutes of more work because something that nobody had on their radar came up? Also ok but also not on time.
It's a totally different thing to say "sorry I'm late, I'll make up for it by covering for you next time you need to leave a bit earlier" and "10 minutes later is basically on time". Same if a boss says "Sorry this took longer today, just come in later another day" which is fine vs "a little bit of extra work has never hurt anybody" or "your own fault you didn't finish the task during agreed hours"
Ok boomer
As a millennial I'm on team, "Work starts at 9, show up at 9"... but if you're a little late here and there, whatever. So long as the work gets done.
I would be this way but I started my career in Boston and the T and the busses and the tunnels there make anything close to this impossible. If you actually wanted to be on time you’d be showing up 20 minutes early just as often as 15 minutes late. To truly always be on time would mean planning to get there an hour early every day.
Companies downtown here know just not to put meetings between 9 and 10 because it’s just impossible that every single member of a team will make it to work without issues even once a week. I’d guess even hourly jobs give more flexibility than you’d expect from a standard employer here because it’s just such a clusterfuck to transit in Boston
The further into the burbs you get, the more hardcore companies are about enforcing a 9-5.
How i felt reading that title
I would guess the stats would be the same if you compared boomers at Gen z's age. I have definitely worked with a lot of always late boomers. The generations aren't as much of a divide as a timeframe and young people will do as they always have.
10 minutes is on time. Unless you work with shifts, where other people need to wait for you.
Yeah, 10 minutes where I work can snowball if just the right ingredients are in play. But at least the pay isn't total shit. Just a bit shit. ($25/hour should be the national minimum, dammit!)
Depends on the work and if people depend on you being on time. Applying one rule doesn't really make sense, but neither does RTO or a lot of work culture.
Fuck what baby boomers think. Bunch of greedy and selfish cunts.
You're not getting a raise for being on time and people that are on time every day are being laid off too. In practice it doesn't seem to matter that much.
Late due to traffic? Who cares? Wanna leave early on a Friday and have overtime? Be my guest!
Flexi time, baby!
I'm with the boomers on this one. You don't have to start going 100% as soon as work starts, but at least be there. I guess it's just a thing I feel personally is a good thing, when people are punctual. In a work setting I think it depends on the job. In relaxed office I suppose it's whatever, unless you have meetings and shit, but don't keep people waiting on you. It's more about politeness and respecting people's time for me, than us' hyper capitalistic, ruthless industrial complex, void of decent labor laws with out of touch, powerhungry clueless boomer-bosses (adjectives!) who think being late is a curse upon their House.
Arriving 10 minutes late sometimes and being punctual aren't related. (Don't get angry, keep reading) If you aren't making anyone wait for you, someone who really needs you, like a coworker waiting for a shift change, opening a store, a meeting, or attending a client, then you're not late. It's your time and your work, if the work is being done and delivered on time, then you are punctual, doesn't matter if you arrived 10 minutes late that day.
That's why at my office meetings are not allowed exactly at 8 or later than 4 pm, nor at lunch times. We are adults, we recognize we all have personal lives.
At my last job I worked with a boomer manager. She was always 15 minutes early, great, right? She had the worst work ethic I have ever seen. She usually left at 9 or so to do personal errands. Would take extended lunches for two hours or more. She would regularly cancel last minute or entirely miss meetings. Would leave late every single day, usually closing office (turns out she was embezzling money). Did she extend these courtesies to her employees? Not at all, she would give warnings and fire people, check cameras and comb timesheets to deduct wages, would complaint about bathroom breaks and fired a coworker for taking maternity leave. The point is, punctuality is a value about being considerate with other people's time, not enslaving to a clock. Chairs have no feelings, they won't notice if you sat 10 minutes late on them.
Punctual means arriving at a specific time. I think you mean punctuallity doesn't always matter.
I don't think that article means what the headline thinks it means. Is everyone who is 10 minutes late getting fired? If not, there is some tolerance.
And of course sometimes the baby boomers are like to work, and they don't fire themselves, so we don't even have to do real research to call b******* on this one.
I'm glad my job doesn't care as long as your timecard makes sense.