In the hectic, often high-stress world of pizza restaurant operations, punctuality is a crucial element that can significantly impact your overall workflow and team morale. Recently, a member of PMQ’s Think Tank sparked a lively discussion about whether it’s acceptable for employees to consistently show up late. What would you do? Fire the employee? Look for ways to both incentivize and penalize stragglers? Ignore the problem and let it fester? Here’s what the Think Tankers had to say:
daisy1: Is it socially acceptable to be on time for a job or to be late every single day? Is a business owner asking too much for their employees to show up on time, or should we just bend over and play the “Oh, its OK game”? Should we just be grateful that we even have employees who show up for work, even though they show up 5-10 minutes late every single day? Are my standards too high?
Jerrell: Being consistently 5-10 minutes late isn’t exactly “socially acceptable” in a professional setting, at least not in my experience. It can be frustrating for both you and your employees. Here’s the thing: You’re running a business, and punctuality is part of the job. It shows respect for your time, your customers’ time and the overall flow of the kitchen. Think about it—a late prep crew throws off the whole night’s rhythm!
Related: Hope for the hiring process: How Manizza’s Pizza finds the right employees
On the other hand, nobody’s perfect. There’s a difference between the occasional late night due to car trouble and someone who rolls in fashionably late every day. Maybe have a chat with your crew? Explain that, while you appreciate them showing up, being on time is important. See if there’s anything you can do to help them be more punctual, like a little buffer built into the start times to account for unexpected delays. But, ultimately, chronic lateness disrupts the business. There’s a middle ground between having crazy-high standards and just letting everyone slide.
famousperry: I had a similar situation, so my solution was to force my employee to understand how it feels. We do payroll on Wednesday, so when this employee came to get his check, I told him it was not ready and that he could come back later and grab it. I did this again the following week and gave him some lame excuse that I ran out of ink in my printer. On the third week he flipped out and said this was ridiculous, and I told him that now he understands how I feel when he’s always late. It did not solve the problem, but it proved a point that definitely helped with how often he comes in late.
veritable: We have a similar issue with an employee that lives close to our shop (and has been with us for over 30 years!) and is still consistently 5-10 minutes late. We tried scheduling him for 3:55 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. and other silly things. But what finally worked involved a yellow and pink highlighter-style marker and our weekly posted schedule. If someone was on time, their shift on the schedule was highlighted pink, and if someone was late, it was highlighted in yellow. At the end of the week, if the schedule was all pink, everyone received a $5 per-person “team” bonus. And if there was any yellow on the schedule, no one got a bonus. Once explained and implemented, the problem pretty much took care of itself. The solution involved a modest cost, but it helped establish a culture in our organization where being on time was both important and valued. If someone is late, it puts stress on everyone else working that shift. So flipping that back on the person who comes in late and holding them responsible works well for us.
December: If you can do without the problem employee, fire him. I know that his habit of coming in late every day is probably one of many things you can’t stand. It’s clear the employee thinks he’s above working in a pizza place. He is a cancer. The other employees will use [his chronic lateness] as an excuse [for their own similar behavior] whenever they can. As soon as you can, let him go. You can try to set him aside and have a talk about your expectations. It may work for a week—maybe two—but, soon enough, he will start coming in late regularly again, forcing you to have another talk with him, and who has time for that? How an employee does anything is how they do everything.
We had a system going where, if you were late, you weren’t included in the front counter tips that night (usually about $25 per night). It worked OK for about two weeks. But then the problem employee started calling in to let us know they were going to be late. The thinking was, “Hey, I let them know I was going to be late, so I’m good. I should be included in tips.” That employee would also come back late from break, and all the on-time employees would make a fuss about it. If I condoned that once and included the late employee in tips, all the other employees would think they’re owed that too. And if the problem employee knows they are going to be late and not included in the end-of-night tips, they will be EXTRA late. And that employee also conveniently “forgets” to clock in if they’re late, then they will lie and say that they were on time.