Company Posts Sign Saying Every Minute An Employee Is Late To Work They Have To Stay 10 Minutes Past Their Scheduled Time To Leave
This company has clearly set themselves up for failure.
PR Image Factory / CanvaPro Whether it’s car troubles, a failed wake-up call, or even just poor time management, most people show up a few minutes late to work at one time or another. Though this shouldn't become a habit, everyone is human, and things happen. That’s why many companies have some type of “grace period” — you can show up 10 minutes late without penalty, which helps to account for the “humanness” of their employees.
However, that's evidently not the case for every company. A content creator named Callie shared a sign that has made the rounds online after being posted on Reddit. The unknown workplace gave absolutely no grace to their employees, instead implementing an outrageous rule.
The company put up a sign telling their employees they’d need to ‘stay late’ an extra 10 minutes for every minute they were late to work.
“For every minute that you are late to work, you’ll be required to work for 10 minutes after 6 p.m.,” the sign read. "For example, if you arrive at 10:02, you will have to stay an extra 20 minutes until 6:20 p.m."
"First off, how do you equate a minute to 10 minutes?" Callie questioned. “The policy would be insane enough as is if it was 1 minute for 1 minute, but the fact that you’re saying for every individual minute that you're late to work, you have to work 10 extra minutes makes this absolutely insane.”
This office rule quickly sparked outrage online, with many questioning if the "extra work" would be paid. Of course, many viewers pointed out that if this time was unpaid, it would be entirely illegal.
Callie had the same thought. "Is this company completely comfortable with paying all of this sudden overtime because they're forcing employees to stay 20, 30, 40 minutes over because they were four minutes late for work?" she asked.
Whether it’s a traffic jam or a silenced alarm, these employers are not only removing the little bit of flexibility you’d expect from a company but also attempting to hijack their employees' evening and personal time. How exactly do you justify equating 2 minutes to 20 minutes if you truly care for your employees’ well-being?
Reddit
Commenters suggested that this employer has set itself up for failure, naming employee dissatisfaction, overtime costs, ‘malicious compliance,’ and wage theft as reasons.
"Do you want to lose employees? Because that’s how you lose employees," one Reddit user wrote.
“I guarantee that no member of management is ever going to be in accordance with this rule," Callie insisted. "If my shift is 10 to 6 and I show up at 10:02, I’m still leaving at 6. Maybe, the absolute latest I’d leave would be 6:02.”
However, many commenters suggested that they would not only work this extra time but also take full advantage of it, draining their bosses' pockets with “malicious compliance.”
Jacob Lund / CanvaPro
“I’d be 5 minutes late every day and rake in all the overtime pay. See how quickly they’d change that policy then,” one viewer suggested. “Let’s not forget, though, this is a JOB, not high school.”
It’s exactly this sentiment that runs through the entire discussion. More employees than ever are being treated like children, micromanaged, under-compensated, and completely dehumanized. Employees are human. They’re going to make mistakes; that’s why our culture must be more empathetic than corporate America currently allows.
Not to mention, cultivating a healthy (fear-free) workplace will make your employees happier and boost true productivity more than rigid expectations and strict rules ever will.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories.