A Few Timely Words for an Employee Who is Habitually Late
You’re ready to start your 9:00 a.m. meeting and the third seat to the left is empty. It’s now 9:16 a.m., you’re on the 2nd agenda item, and the empty seat is filled with a disheveled employee. They mumble something about traffic and the room vibe turns awkward. The glances around the table confirm that this isn’t a one-off-sitch. It’s a habit and it’s a bad one. It’s time to craft and share a few words.
Silence might be golden, but it can also be harmful especially when a team member is behaving in an unprofessional manner. Meeting this behavior with silence will send a loud and clear message to the team members who honored your start time. Saying nothing sends the message that you approve of this behavior and that will have immediate consequences for all.
“Your daily pitstop to Starbucks seems to be the reason we need to repeat the opening of this meeting each week. The least you can do, is bring me an iced caramel macchiato too.” While both the macchiato and the snark would be satisfying, there will probably be a sugar or snark crash later that afternoon. With this response, the tardiness is acknowledged but not examined, understood, or in any way corrected. It would be easy for someone to overhear this comment and interpret it as green light to do more of the same. An equally problematic response would be, “Skip the traffic excuse. We all deal with the same traffic. Get a watch, set a timer, and leave earlier to be on time.” While this lacks the sweetness of the macchiato quip, it fails to support an improvement which is the ultimate goal for you, this employee, and your team. Happily, there are more productive words available.
As the meeting wraps and your schedule allows, ask Joe (as in “cup of”) to stay. Wait until the room clears and then offer, “Joe, you are consistently late for this and several other meetings throughout the week. This causes us to revisit agenda items and conversations which wastes everyone’s time. It’s become a bad habit and could lead to a bad reputation for you. Neither of us want that. I [this team/department/company] value respect and collaboration. Your chronic lateness indicates you might not share those values. Give this conversation some thought tonight. Let’s meet tomorrow at 8am to review your plans to do better. I’m happy to brainstorm with you, if helpful.”
This is a better response for a few reasons:
You don’t humiliate the human in front of their colleagues.
You quickly share your concern and the impact their behavior has on others and their reputation.
You assign them ownership of the solution and a deadline by which to apply it.
You gain credibility by naming it instead of trying to make a joke or a dig. You also create a space for clarity. This human could be struggling and could use your partnership to help them reorganize or get organized. With empathetic statements and questions shaped with the right words, you can transform tardiness into timeliness and celebrate over an iced caramel macchiato next week…your treat.
“There is no stronger motivation for employees than an underst anding that their work matters and is relevant to someone or something other than a financial statement.”
Lisa Lai, Business Advisor, Coach, Author and Speaker; Motivating Employees Is Not About Carrots or Sticks, HBR, 2017
“Asking “Why?” can lead to understanding. Asking “Why not?” can lead to breakthroughs.”
Daniel Pink, author, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers will Rule the World
Don’t stop now! Learn more from a few of our personal favs below:
Disclosure: The resources shared and listed by KKL & Co. are those that have been evaluated to be of high value to our leaders. We are proud affiliates for some of these resources, meaning if you click a link and make a purchase, we earn a nominal commission at no extra cost to you. Please don’t spend any money on these resources unless you believe they will help you become a better human.
