IT worker is blamed for coworker showing up late, says it's their fault for leaving on time: 'They’ve basically gotten used to arriving late, and the person ending the shift is stuck covering past their scheduled time'

What if you were punished for someone else's tardiness?

Some people just run late. It's who they are. You likely have a friend or family member who is simply tardy, and there is not much you can do about it. Whenever you tell them to show up, they will be there an hour later and with some excuse. It's different every time, but you know the truth. They simply have a different internal clock than you do. So you adjust and start telling them that things start an hour earlier than they actually do, so they have a chance of being there on time. But this is a risky game to play. They might catch on to your ruse and adjust their schedule in turn. They might sense your lies and be even later as punishment. Or, by the laws of physics, they will show up late anyway.

You just have to learn to live with this kind of person. You stop inviting them to time-sensitive events, and you never ask them to pick you up from the airport. You adjust your life around this kind of person because you know you're not going to change them. But what if you work with this kind of person? What if you're relying on them to be there so you can leave? This can get old pretty quickly. It's one thing to have to deal with a tardy friend. It's an entirely other thing to deal with a tardy coworker. You might have to start laying the law down.

via Austin Distel

_{^{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}}
Advertisement
That's part of what employers are there to do. They're there to enforce the timeliness of the whole operation. You know that if you're late and if you're consistently late, it might threaten your employment. Especially for the kind of work that requires someone to be ready and working at certain times of the day. Lateness can jeopardize the operation at large, not just one person's work. One workplace encountered a lateness epidemic, but they started blaming the wrong people. They chewed out the one who left on time, not the one who made that an issue. Read on to see what happened in the story and decide what you would have done.
Got blamed for leaving on time because someone else was late. How is this "my responsibility"?

via u/Dry_Negotiation_173
via u/Dry_Negotiation_173
via u/Dry_Negotiation_173
Advertisement
via u/Dry_Negotiation_173
via u/Dry_Negotiation_173
Advertisement
Commenters gave their takes on the situation.

via u/No_Aside7310
via u/CatsDIY
Advertisement
via Jonas Leupe

_{^{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}}
via u/TG3_III
via u/TG3_III
Advertisement
via u/TG3_III
via u/FoxtrotSierraTango
via u/FoxtrotSierraTango
Advertisement
via u/FoxtrotSierraTango
via u/Arkayenro
via u/Arkayenro
Advertisement
via u/Initial-Ad6819
via u/puzzledpilgrim
via u/FriendlyChickenDino
Advertisement
via u/Usual-Journalist-246
via u/DryBattle
via u/PoppaBear63
Advertisement
via u/PoppaBear63
via u/Bigdawg7299
via u/Bigdawg7299
Advertisement
via u/Bigdawg7299
via u/MrMe2K