How to deal with People who are always Late?

Punctuality is a virtue that is not found in many people though whoever practices it certainly reaps its reward from his peers and loved ones alike. Being on time conveys that you value its importance and do not treat your time or their, the ones you are meeting, lightly.

Some people are sticklers for punctuality while others do not obsess overcoming on time. However, a person who is never on time will surely invite the ire of those around them.  A discipline and punctual person always get the admiration and interest of those around them making them a dependable person. 

Tips To Deal With A Person Who Is Always Late

#1. Don’t Rely On Them For Important Things  

One thing which can seriously go wrong and make you angry is when you put your trust in people who are never on time for important things. This can spoil your plans and make you blow your horn more often than you like. Never wait for them to bring the best bottle of champagne when you are sending off a colleague who has just left your organization among other important things. Reliance on them from everything to birthday cakes to game tickets will surely not pay off. This will hold you in good stead and get things you want to be done finished on time not giving any wind to the personal demon which rises and haunt you over indiscipline.  

#2. Lie To Them About The Scheduled Time  

Once you have established that you cannot expect them to be on time, you need to manipulate them and exploit their ability to trust you. The lies you tell them are not detrimental to them in any way, it;s just a matter of correcting their behavior. The thoughts that impart guilt in you over lying to them should disperse easily as you are on the right side this time. All of your peers and colleagues adhere to the scheduled time there is no reason why this person should not. Study their pattern and mark their arrival time so that you know exactly how late they are from the scheduled hour and the buffer you set for them makes them arrive just with everyone else.  

#3. Bide Your Time  

He/she has not turned up again at the given time. This is driving you insane and you don’t know what to do. Staring at the watch is not helping you and you have already tightened the grip on the pencil in your hand. The best approach is to relax till they arrive or go on about your work without them. If the work you have to do involves their active participation as well think for a while and separate the parts which you can work on all by yourself. Reading a magazine, chatting with another colleague, catching up on news or listening to your favorite track are all ways to bide your time while waiting for your colleague.  

#4. Don’t Commute With Them 

If they live near your place and give you good company in the metro or have their own car that is super convenient to sit in while heading to work bury these temptations. People who don’t take time too seriously generally are at the receiving end of it as it doesn’t spare them the consequences of not valuing their own time. You can never sync your clock with someone else’s clock if their clock is erratic. Suppress all urges that make you wish that you had some company going to work so that you can practice your own time adherence strictly.  

#5. Highlight The Importance Of Minute Indirectly 

When people who take time seriously hear a complaint about their non-adherence to scheduled time from their colleagues and peers, they tell them that life should not be taken too seriously or play down the whole thing by saying we will leave late and make up for the time by putting in more work hours. This can lead to a regular habit of coming in late and can set a wrong example for other employees who may come to think that the organization doesn’t take rules seriously. No veiled jibes or sarcasm should be used to highlight the importance of work hours but just a close reminder whenever they finish their work that you started at this hour and finished at this. 

#6. Don’t Count On Them For Lunch  

There is a huge temptation among colleagues to eat together with other colleagues as sharing food is never a bad idea. More options to eat are always a party for taste buds but the sweet taste in one’s mouth can soon turn sour and kill one’s appetite if one has to wait a long while to just dig in and eat. Counting on such colleagues who always take a little too long to begin anything or get away from something is never a good idea as they are helpless to change the view which supports this habit of procrastination.  

#7. Put Reminders On Your Own Desk 

Time is money and Time waits for none are some examples of slogans you can have at your desk to remind anyone who looks at them that you are very punctual about your work hours. This is a better approach than posting on the desk of the person who does not report on time as this can make them feel they are in the line of fire and under direct attack from you. In order to not evoke bitterness from them all, you need to do is to show them what you believe him and practice what you preach.  

#8. Emotional Appeal  

A lot of employees are wary of talking about their personal life since they think it will bring about comparisons, shame, and humiliation. What you can do to ease up the nerves here is talk to someone else colleague or friend in front of this person and discuss everything freely. This will display your range of emotions and tell them you are mature enough to quietly listen about anything that life hands to people without judging them and forming a biased view. Everyone needs to speak their mind at some point or the other so that they don’t get too caught up in their feelings and are bridled by an emotional mess.  

# 9. Talk About Consequences  

This is a step which should be taken when all other steps have failed and are your last resort. Speak to a colleague and start the conversation with the name of someone who has already left the company and was a latecomer. You can speak of their termination ( even when it was resignation) as a consequence of coming in late all the time. Despite several warnings, they never corrected this habit and took regular pay cuts from their salary. This will ring in his/her ears more sharply than anything else and he will start freaking out over his conduct coupled with the feeling to change it.  

# 10. Praise Dedication  

The employees who turn up on time and keep a track of their work with the amount of time they took to complete it deserve nothing else but praise. Timely fulfillment of deadlines and guideline adherence is no easy thing to accomplish especially when you are working on multiple things daily. Dedicated employees only increase their level of commitment when they receive words of encouragement. The ones who slack or take longer to complete specific tasks will feel left out when others are reaping rewards and this will help them analyze their own conduct and approach in order to assess what they need to do to get honored in the same way.  

That’s all. Let us know what you do to cope and deal with your colleagues who turn up late and make you fret over your timeline not being consistent with that of theirs. Drop your comments below.

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