Work

[Lorne Malvo]

We've got a new lad at work whose getting right on my tits. 

I say new - he started in August last year and was really good the first few months. But somewhere around October/November he just became really complacent and started getting gradually more lazy. The amount of times I ask him if he's done a certain job and he says 'not yet' but he's on his phone watching bastard TikToks is ridiculous. The problem is, it's a small business with no real hierarchy other than 2 gaffers and a few employees, so I don't really have any seniority to bollock him with. But the two actual managers seem oblivious to the fact he's doing fuck all despite me mentioning it everyday. 

We're quiet this morning so I've asked him to design some new signs for us to display on the side of our fencing. After around 10 minutes he was arsing around on his phone. I asked him if he'd done the signs and he said 'yeah, already done... got ChatGPT to design them'. 

First of all, I asked him to design them. I could fucking ask ChatGPT to do it myself! Secondly, one of the reasons we bought him in is because of his 'design background'. If he's just going to get AI to create stuff for him then we may aswell sack him off as it makes his role completely redundant. 

And lastly, the little shit strolls in at 8:05 every morning (we work 8am to 4pm) but he lives 5 minutes away and drives. I don't drive and have a 2 mile walk yet manage to get here 15 minutes early everyday. I'm not asking much, but if we start at 8 be here at 8! Get your arse out of bed 5 minutes earlier.

Needed to vent, cheers for that. 

[DavidB6937]

54 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

And lastly, the little shit strolls in at 8:05 every morning (we work 8am to 4pm) but he lives 5 minutes away and drives. I don't drive and have a 2 mile walk yet manage to get here 15 minutes early everyday. I'm not asking much, but if we start at 8 be here at 8! Get your arse out of bed 5 minutes earlier.

This behaviour drives me absolutely crazy.

My commute into London and the office takes like 2 hours door to door on trains. I'm never late unless they're fucked. In fact, I usually an earlier train just in case, and end up half an hour earlier than I need to be.

Yet there are people who live IN LONDON who manage to be late EVERY SINGLE TIME.

HOW?! I can't understand how if you're late every time you wouldn't realise there's something that needs to change and even then if I can get there earlier than I need to be then there's no damn excuse.

Probably could've gone in the minor annoyances but yeah, some people just show no consideration whatsoever.

[BomberPat]

That seems to be a truism in every job I've ever worked - the closer you live to work, the more likely you are to be late. I'm sure I became guilty of it myself when the walk to work from my old flat was probably less than ten minutes downhill. 

When you have a commute, and you're reliant on catching your specific train or bus, then you have to make that. But if it's a ten minute walk, or if there's a bus every five minutes, you're more likely to push it, and less likely to have to plan accordingly, so you end up being less consistent in your timekeeping. Though that would suggest that sometimes you would get there on time, sometimes even early, if it was just a matter of not always leaving the house at the same time. If it's always late by the same margin, it's just taking the piss.

I remember when a mate of mine worked in a coffee shop, the guy who was most consistently late lived in the flat above the shop. 

[Lorne Malvo]

15 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

 

When you have a commute, and you're reliant on catching your specific train or bus, then you have to make that. But if it's a ten minute walk, or if there's a bus every five minutes, you're more likely to push it, and less likely to have to plan accordingly, so you end up being less consistent in your timekeeping. Though that would suggest that sometimes you would get there on time, sometimes even early, if it was just a matter of not always leaving the house at the same time. If it's always late by the same margin, it's just taking the piss.

I did think this and was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but then remembered up until last year I only lived a ten minute walk away myself and would be here twenty/fifteen minutes early everyday to have a cup of tea and settle in before properly starting at 8. 

Like you say, if he was sometimes early, sometimes bang on 8 and sometimes late then I could buy his bullshit excuses about temporary traffic lights and the like. But the fact he's here at 8:05 everyday just suggests to me that he probably rolls out of bed at 7:45 and comes right here rather than getting up a bit earlier and putting in a bit of effort to get here on time.

It's doubly frustrating that when we take orders on our website, they come through to both of our email accounts, and we work on the basis that the first to get to that email processes the order. So naturally any order that we take overnight ends up getting done by muggins here while that lazy bastard is still chewing on his Coco Pops.

[SuperBacon]

This would infuriate me and I'd have to say something.

[deathrey]

As a disorganised person, I apologise on behalf of all late people.

[Tamura]

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

That seems to be a truism in every job I've ever worked - the closer you live to work, the more likely you are to be late.

I wish! I live less than five minutes walk from where I work and all the managers know this, so I've got less opportunity for excuses than everyone else. 

[westlondonmist]

I worked in Reading for a couple of years, always arrived early. The cunts who lived within a 20 minute walk were always late. They'd also turn up and then have breakfast. 

[Chris B]

Not always laziness - I'm one of those people who tends to think the quickest I've done a journey is the length of time it always takes. I don't think I'm late until I'm late.

Knowing a couple of other people who are worse at it than I am, I don't think it's fair to assume laziness all the time - I know some genuinely found it distressing. If they found it easy, they'd be on time. 

I generally got better at it, and I'm mostly decent these days. That said, I've also learned not to make myself as visible as I sometimes have - I was bollocked in one place where I was no more regularly late than a bunch of people. But I was the most likely to mention in the group chat that I was running 5 minutes late, when others would just saunter in 10-15 minutes later. So I was the one that gained the rep for it. I also worked in one place where the manager was regularly late, and had no issues with 'traffic' causing lateness because they drove. But if the tube/train was delayed, you clearly should have got the earlier one.

And hey - morning people are generally cunts anyway. Most of them are middle managers. These things are related.

[DavidB6937]

5 minutes ago, Chris B said:

Not always laziness - I'm one of those people who tends to think the quickest I've done a journey is the length of time it always takes. I don't think I'm late until I'm late.

Knowing a couple of other people who are worse at it than I am, I don't think it's fair to assume laziness all the time - I know some genuinely found it distressing. If they found it easy, they'd be on time. 

I generally got better at it, and I'm mostly decent these days. That said, I've also learned not to make myself as visible as I sometimes have - I was bollocked in one place where I was no more regularly late than a bunch of people. But I was the most likely to mention in the group chat that I was running 5 minutes late, when others would just saunter in 10-15 minutes later. So I was the one that gained the rep for it. I also worked in one place where the manager was regularly late, and had no issues with 'traffic' causing lateness because they drove. But if the tube/train was delayed, you clearly should have got the earlier one.

And hey - morning people are generally cunts anyway. Most of them are middle managers. These things are related.

I'm not a morning person by any means. But if I have to get up early, get an earlier train and make sure I'm on time I do it.

For me it's just a matter of respect for everyone else who does turn up on time.

Do I want to get up at 5am instead of later? Fuck no, but it's not fair if I just rock up at whatever time I want just because.

Laziness or whatever else - surely everyone knows what time they start work, and unless there's specific issues with transport or something unusual at home, there's no excuse for being consistently late?

[Wretch]

The bus stop and our house. As you can see, a distance of about ten feet. My wife runs to it every single morning for fear of missing the bus to work, which she actually has done a few times. Drives me fucking mental as I'm the opposite; annoyingly early for everything. 

 

[Chris B]

15 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

I'm not a morning person by any means. But if I have to get up early, get an earlier train and make sure I'm on time I do it.

For me it's just a matter of respect for everyone else who does turn up on time.

Do I want to get up at 5am instead of later? Fuck no, but it's not fair if I just rock up at whatever time I want just because.

Laziness or whatever else - surely everyone knows what time they start work, and unless there's specific issues with transport or something unusual at home, there's no excuse for being consistently late?

Eh. For starters, I've had trains to Manchester be more reliable than changing from the overground to the Victoria Line to the Central Line. While I think TFL is an amazing thing, it can also be a coin flip as to whether a journey will take you 20 minutes or 40 minutes at times. 

As I said, I got better at it over the years - but I've also developed more empathy for those who genuinely find it difficult. Because I've seen how much people can be upset by struggling at something and having it taken as only ever being a note of rudeness by people who find it less difficult. I think moves to more flexible working arrangements have benefitted most people.

[BomberPat]

My brother used to drive me mad with how late he'd leave things; the nearest bus stop was a ten minute walk, tops, but he'd always leave it so late that you'd be sprinting to catch the bus - and our stop was across the main road, so there was no guarantee you'd be able to cross in time. I'd always rather have got to the stop five minutes early and wait, knowing that I was "safe", but he always approached it with an attitude of, "we managed to catch the bus, what's the problem?". 

Generally, I know my timekeeping isn't the best, and my sense of direction is even worse, so especially if it's an unfamiliar journey, I'm always going to plan for the worst. So I tend to overcompensate out of fear of being late, and end up everywhere early. Part of that is that if I have to be somewhere at 3pm, then the entire afternoon may as well be a write-off, because I'll be anxiously clockwatching until it's time to leave - at which point, I may as well just leave earlier and get it out of the way. I don't think I've ever had an interview where I didn't show up half an hour early out of fear of either being late or not being able to find the place in time, and just ended up walking around the block a few times. My current job is flexible enough that, within reason, you can't really be late, but when I've worked in places where I've had to literally clock in, I've usually got in early, grabbed a coffee and done a crossword before starting, because the alternative is rushing to make it in time.

If I'm meeting someone, I tend to be the first there, and grab a drink or a coffee on my own a good half hour before they get there. The problem, though, is that then if they're late it feels like they're even later because of how long you've been there. But I can't do it any other way. Needing to be somewhere at a certain time, to me, means worrying about that time for so long beforehand that it's just easier to get there even earlier.

[JLM]

Arriving late than leaving early is definitely annoying but I must say I’ve never been on board with arriving twenty minutes before my shift starts. I don’t want to spend more time at work than I am contractually obligated to. I already give them way too many hours of my life.
 

I’m really lucky that my current role allows me to work from home full time with only one appearance in the office per month. I start and finish precisely as per my stated hours. The plus side for them is that I’m never late when previously I was reliant on trains and occasionally had a nightmare getting in. Sometimes my train would inexplicably stop in between two stations for half an hour, often in a tunnel for the added spice of not being able to let work know. When I was commuting I did allow plenty of time but trains can be wildly unpredictable like that. 
 

I’m also never off sick now. Definitely been days where I’ve felt ill enough that I’d have been tempted to sack off the commute but can still motivate myself to log on from home. 
 

Seeing more and more workplaces dial it back I do live in constant fear of being dragged back in but I’m enjoying it while I have it. 

Edited March 13 by JLM

[BomberPat]

I'd never show up actually at work early if I could help it, especially not if it's shift work, but I used to like getting into town a bit before my shift started and grabbing a coffee or a sandwich, just to sit and do something that meant I wasn't starting my day by just rushing straight to work. Especially in jobs I really hated, it felt like a good bit of self-care to not just be rushing straight into the job as soon as I woke up. Ironically, for all the good things that working from home has given me, it's completely subverted that idea, as I tend to switch my laptop on as soon as I wake up these days.

I've talked before about my old job at a garage, and how the manager would invariably be late to take over from me at the end of my shift. It would get to the time I was meant to leave, and the phone would ring, as he called to tell me that he was running late and was just leaving his flat - probably about twenty minutes' walk away at his snail's pace. Then he'd invariably show up with a takeaway coffee or a bag of shopping, so you knew he hadn't even come straight to work as quick as he could, he'd made a few stops on the way. Arsehole behaviour.