I have lost several jobs due to tardiness. Why are employers so strict about this when...please see description.

• I am not one of those people who is always extremely late, but I do have problems getting to work to punch a time clock by an exact time. idk why it is, but I find it nearly impossible to be consistantly on time. Although the majority of my tardies, have been no more than 10 minutes late, I have lost several jobs because of this. I am a good worker eho gets along well with everyone. Why are employers more concerned with the exact time I punch the time clock than the fact that I am a good worker, and rarely call in sick?

• Answer:

  I see this scenario play out a lot, with complaints that sound a lot like yours. Many good and skilled employees lose their jobs because of punctuality problems, or even by unilaterally taking "flextime" options that they are not authorized to take. Employers often have to do things by the clock. In retail, they must be open a certain time. If they fail to show up then customers cannot enter, may turn away, and not return. In office support, customers and interdepartmental employees need to know when business can and cannot be taken care of. They have schedules too. In manufacturing, deliveries and work-in-progress flows are time-dependent and persons involved must be at their stations. In places that run on several shifts, someone's relief is dependent on your showing up. Finally, rules have to apply to others as well as to yourself. On-time appearance is a basic tenet of workplace discipline. If an employer gives you slack, then they must give the same slack to everyone, which would be impractical. They would not be able to fairly discipline a lazier person if that person can say "but so-and-so is late all the time and she's never written-up". The remedy for you is to learn Lombardi time. Vince Lombardi was the successful coach of the Green Bay Packers, which held NFL championships for several years in the 1960s-70s. He was a respected motivational speaker who freely shared his rules of success. One of those rules was Lombardi time. Lombardi time is the same as your local time zone, less 15 minutes. Therefore, if the next job schedules you to show up at 8:00, show up on Lombardi time at 7:45. Set your alarm and cease all other obligations to accomodate Lombardi time. If you do, then even those occasions where circumstances outside your control delay you by 10 minutes, you will still be early. You would be late so rarely, like once a year, as to be unnoticeable.