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by Monica Karlstein, staff writer
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Everyone gets delayed some times. People arrive
late to meetings, classes, or work, and many have likely, at
least once, told a teacher or boss a white lie and blamed a traffic
jam or a cancelled bus. Such things happen; that’s the
way it is. However, an excuse such as “I had to take my
cat to the dentist,” is maybe too much.
“
Late to Work,” a new survey by CareerBuilder.com, found
that one in 10 employees arrive late to work at least once a
week, and 24 percent arrive late at least once a month. According
to the survey, conducted with more than 2,500 workers and 1,000
hiring managers, 20 percent of workers admit to making up fake
excuses for their tardiness. Three common excuses were traffic,
getting children ready for school or day care, or falling back
to sleep.
These explanations seem credible; however, it’s not difficult
to understand that 35 percent of the hiring managers don’t
believe the excuses when they are told that “I stopped
for a bagel sandwich, the store was robbed, and the police required
everyone to stay for questioning,” or “My son tried
to flush our ferret down the toilet, and I needed to tend to
the ferret.”
These were two of the top-10 examples of the most unusual excuses
for arriving late. Some others are: “I went all the way
to the office and realized I was still in my pajamas and had
to go home to change,” and “I couldn’t find
the right tie, so I had to wait for the stores to open so I could
buy one.”
At some universities in Europe, each class begins with an “academic
quarter,” which means that you can arrive up to 15 minutes
late without consequences or missing necessary information. HPU
doesn’t have that tradition, but many students still arrive
late to class.
Some teachers don’t show any disapproval at all, while
others joke that the late student owes the teacher 10 pushups,
and others set up rules so that if a student arrives late to
a specific number of classes, the late arrivals count as one
missed class. Some teachers give a quiz at the start of class
that can’t be made up. Even if your teachers at HPU take
such measures, your boss, on your first job after graduation,
might be even more strict.
“
Thirty percent of hiring managers say they don’t care if
their employees come in late, as long as their work is completed
on time with good quality,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice
president of Human Resources for CareerBuilder.com. “However
one in 10 hiring managers say they would consider terminating
an employee if he or she arrives late once or twice in a given
year. One in five says a pink slip may be in order if an employee
is late three times in a year.”
Finally, even if you are not one of those who make up really
bad excuses or arrive late to class every single week, it might
still be time to make a strong commitment to develop your punctuality
today, so you will be well prepared the first day of work tomorrow. |
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