Lateness Could Cost Business £66m

According to a report by Peninsula, worker lateness costs business £66m every year, The study found that Monday is the day when most of us are late for work, accounting for 65% of lateness.

Employees are on average ten minutes late for work and 77% admit to having lied about why they were late. The most common excuses for being late were:

1) Public transport
2) Heavy traffic
3) Faking illness
4) Lost keys
5) Car accident
6) Trouble sleeping
7) The car wouldn’t start
8) Burglary
9) Family illness

Some of the more bizarre excuses were:

- The dog ate my car keys
- I can’t drive as I’m still drunk from last night
- I couldn’t find anywhere to park
- I didn’t sleep last night because my wife locked me out
- I can’t come in because I’ve been arrested

Speaking to On Rec, Mike Huss, senior Employment Law Specialist at Peninsula BusinessWise said: “Lateness appears to have become a national epidemic, and bosses need to act sooner rather than later to minimise it....It is worrying to note that bosses are not taking the issue of lateness seriously in the workplace. For it does not matter how capable the employee is, if they are not in the workplace they are no use to the employer, and thus have a negative impact on productivity. An absent employee, even for a few minutes, creates problems for management, other employees and customers.”

The survey polled 2,149 employees from a variety of industries across the UK