Being late to work

Post Reply New Topic

How often are you late to work?

Lately Ive started to leave starbucks frappucino by my bed so I can wake up to drink it.

I could never keep the same schedule as the others I worked with, no matter what. Whether I rolled out of bed 30 minutes before I was supposed to be there, or got up four hours early, I would still manage to be late - unless I had an appointment with a client, I was always on time for those. Otherwise, I would get distracted doing something at home, or forget something and have to go back, or get one of those OCD convictions that I left the stove on, or something.

I could never get to work at the same time two days in a row, and I was never doing it consciously on purpose, it was almost as if events conspired to trip me up. I kind of think it was an unconscious rebellion at being told what to do.

The ironic thing was, once I got there, I actually got more work done than any of my coworkers, because I went straight to work and focused on my job, instead of sitting around socializing, joking, talking about television, celebrities, kids' activities and all that senseless crap.

But I was chronically tardy. I just get there when I get there, I hate being pressured.

It's a rare thing, and the only time I've really been late to work is when there was a major accident on the freeway. As my workplace is next to the freeway, the manager was able to see the traffic jam, so it didn't count against me as it was obvious that if the accident didn't happen, I would have been on time.

Never.

when I posted I forgot about the whole Aspie tendency to be on time.

When I worked a regular 9-5 job in an office I was late pretty much every day. I could not get my sleep schedule to work for over two years. I am NOT a morning person -- unless I'm up all night. Now I work overnights and I'm rarely late. Usually if I'm late it's because public transportation has made it impossible for me to get to work on time (since I no longer drive).

If I need to be at a certain place at a certain time, I can usually get there within a few minutes of the target.

But when it comes to work, I find that my habit of showing up somewhere within a two hour window on a regular basis prevents people from knowing what time I'm actually supposed to show up. The result is I can't possibly be late so long as it's within a certain range. But since my job is more about what I have accomplished at the end of the day than it is about following strict rules, this doesn't cause anyone much trouble. Of course if there is a reason why I need to be in by a certain time, I usually try to get there well ahead of the required time.

I'm practically never late to work. Something needs to go seriously wrong for me to show up late, like my car breaking down or something.

I used to show up at work like 10 minutes early most days, but after the company and my colleagues started pissing me off I stopped doing that and started showing up exactly on the minute or maximum 1-2 minutes before. Never late though.

...Flexible hours... very common in the IT industry.

Twice a year, made most of my lates.

I find myself late for jobs I hate. It's my way of telling me I really don't like something about my job. The more I don't like something the worse it gets. Though I never seem to arrive at the same job twice. For the jobs I really loved I would show up ridiculously early and hang around long after my shift was over.

late frequently. can't get my sleep schedule to cooperate in any way whatsoever. also i space out a lot driving and sometimes miss my road or lose track of where i am and get lost.

a few times i've had short term jobs that i was walking on eggshells trying not to screw up and managed to usually be on time or early, but was hardly sleeping at all in order to do so, and the sleep dep made other problems worse.

So some Aspies are never late, while others always are?
Maybe it isn't particularly an Aspie trait at all then.
Some other part of personality or temperment may make one a perennially late, or an always on time person.

For the record, I'm always late. It's a standing joke with my family.

And one of the reason I work where I do...we have MAXI-FLEX time.

I've always had problems with my sleep patterns, so I'd often be very sleep deprived if I had to get up at a regular school/university/work time, such as 8:30am. Sometimes I would sleep through my alarm by accident.

However, if I managed to get up on time, I would always make it to the place before the appointed time.