Employee Showing Up Late

[ayayay]

My small company is having minor problems with employees not showing up on time.

The problem is actually two-fold. That is, we are not always busy, and the employees usually show up on time, however, they do not always, but it feels a little bit awkward to scold someone for not being on time, when they might sit for 4 hours and have little to do anyway.

And the frustrating part is that, when we are busy, and they show up late, it causes major stress for me. What should i do?

And when i am talking about showing up late, i do not have a problem if they show up 10 min late sometimes, but i am talking about when they show up 1-2 hours late.

Edited April 27, 2009 by ayayay

[bino]

Issue a reprimand in writing- that the employee must countersign / acknowledge.

Put a copy in their employment file.

Once you have an accumulation of reprimands, fire their lazy asses.

[babuhavas]

yes even i was facing the same problem,thais can never be on time,they will always find some sister or some food stall on the way to work,its very sab bai-sab bi thing for them,

tell them salary cut for half day if late more than 20 mins,or if you are late 1 hour you have to sit more 1 hour in evening.

they can't afford to lose money,or go late specialy when their sisters are waiting,

i think this will do the trick,

good luck

[Boater]

most Thai companies have a fning system in place,

IE 0 - 30 mins late 100 THB fine

30 - 1hr - 200 THB Fine...

seems to work,

[GungaDin]

most Thai companies have a fining system in place,

IE 0 - 30 mins late 100 THB fine

30 - 1hr - 200 THB Fine...

seems to work,

Yes, that does work. A mate got fed up with stragglers, they soon came into line & on time.

[Texpat]

Wow, baffled as to proper recourse for tardy employees.

Amazing. Good luck with the business.

[mhatami]

Wow, baffled as to proper recourse for tardy employees.

Amazing. Good luck with the business.

I ask for minimum of 5000 bath deposit. This way they can lose it if they do not follow their contract when they are fired. It seems to work most of the time, but still they sometime just leave and never come back. I think it has to do with losing face in some cases. I also have add on the window for heir new people all the time and always talk to new applicant so they existing employee will know I will replace them if they do not do what they are suppose to

[Mighty Mouse]

Fining employees could be regarded as a bit harsh for lowly paid workers.

Perhaps the adoption of a system whereby the employee who is late, has the period for which he is late, tacked onto the end of his normal finish time.

For example, he is rostered 10am to 6pm. He arrives at 11.30am.

Rather than allowing him to finish his shift at 6pm, he is then required to keep working until 7.30pm.

[slapout]

I am always amazed with installation of a time clock and the number of employees who will arrive on time. When pay is calculated from time clock hours, they seem to get in gear, or the slackers may quite. The company normally benefits either way.

[norrona]

Fining employees could be regarded as a bit harsh for lowly paid workers.

Perhaps the adoption of a system whereby the employee who is late, has the period for which he is late, tacked onto the end of his normal finish time.

For example, he is rostered 10am to 6pm. He arrives at 11.30am.

Rather than allowing him to finish his shift at 6pm, he is then required to keep working until 7.30pm.

Nobody is forcing them to work for you

By making them work the extra hour at the end of the day you then have to make sure that they are actually going to be there and do something, I take it the OP is not a school teacher so doesn't do detention after school

[ayayay]

most Thai companies have a fning system in place,

IE 0 - 30 mins late 100 THB fine

30 - 1hr - 200 THB Fine...

seems to work,

Interesting, when you say "most", do you really mean that, or is it more like, you know a few companies that have that policy?

I am also honestly curious, because if this is a very common thing, this might be an option for me.

[KHUNDAN]

First try and encourage the employee by sitting him/her down and telling them how important their part is in the business and that not being on time can not be accepted.

Tell the employee; You understand that at times there will be nothing to do but they are still paid to be there. This should be a brief you give to each employee before or once they start working for you.

If the employee still comes late then conduct an official verbal warning (with witness), next official written warning letter, (signed by yourself and employee), (Employee may refuse to sign, if so just annotate it on the letter and provide a copy to the employee, and the next time he/she is late is the last time. (Terminate him/her)

If you don't correct this behavior when it first happens it will get worse and then when you try or fire them they can say; I have always did this and everyone knows it, so why do you fire me now? It's not fair, why you don't talk to be before?

I am the Deputy Managing Director of a company that employees over 1000 employee's. So been there done that. But now I have a HR Manager that handles these things.

Good Luck

Dan

[think_too_mut]

Tell the employee; You understand that at times there will be nothing to do but they are still paid to be there. This should be a brief you give to each employee before or once they start working for you.

It's too late. The employees are already abusing his slackiness.

Better still is to summon them all and tell: 9 dot you have to be at your desk. Sitting upright, work or no work. Work after 5pm is paid as overtime.

[loverboy44]

I think the best way is to give them a written warning to countersign.

First one, second, out!

This is according to the labour law as well.

[Mighty Mouse]

Fining employees could be regarded as a bit harsh for lowly paid workers.

Perhaps the adoption of a system whereby the employee who is late, has the period for which he is late, tacked onto the end of his normal finish time.

For example, he is rostered 10am to 6pm. He arrives at 11.30am.

Rather than allowing him to finish his shift at 6pm, he is then required to keep working until 7.30pm.

Nobody is forcing them to work for you

By making them work the extra hour at the end of the day you then have to make sure that they are actually going to be there and do something, I take it the OP is not a school teacher so doesn't do detention after school

The OP didn't state what type of business he is running but many Thai industrial type businesses close their doors at varying hours. Retail businesses close at a set time.

If the employee has a certain job to finish, he may be able to work unsupervised past his normal finish time in order to make up the hour/s he was late.

When you start fining or sacking workers, particularly lowly skilled or poorly educated workers, you face the risk of having a disgruntled (ex) employee. Such employees can turn very nasty and can vent their anger in many damaging ways.

Anyway, I have read the various suggestions offered by posters. Mine is just another for the OP to consider.

[ayayay]

Thanks all for your valuable inputs, however, there is one thing that makes it difficult for me, and that is, sometimes i do not have much work for them, and other times i do.

If i usually had a lot to do, it would have been much easier for me to be strict with them.

[norrona]

Fining employees could be regarded as a bit harsh for lowly paid workers.

Perhaps the adoption of a system whereby the employee who is late, has the period for which he is late, tacked onto the end of his normal finish time.

For example, he is rostered 10am to 6pm. He arrives at 11.30am.

Rather than allowing him to finish his shift at 6pm, he is then required to keep working until 7.30pm.

Nobody is forcing them to work for you

By making them work the extra hour at the end of the day you then have to make sure that they are actually going to be there and do something, I take it the OP is not a school teacher so doesn't do detention after school

The OP didn't state what type of business he is running but many Thai industrial type businesses close their doors at varying hours. Retail businesses close at a set time.

If the employee has a certain job to finish, he may be able to work unsupervised past his normal finish time in order to make up the hour/s he was late.

When you start fining or sacking workers, particularly lowly skilled or poorly educated workers, you face the risk of having a disgruntled (ex) employee. Such employees can turn very nasty and can vent their anger in many damaging ways.

Anyway, I have read the various suggestions offered by posters. Mine is just another for the OP to consider.

I hear you and appreciate about the venom ex-employees can have, but my take is still nobody is forcing anybody to work for the OP regardless of the salary and really you have to think to yourself am I here to babysit someone who is old enough to know better....personally when I had a business in Thailand I just used to sack problem staff especially if I have verbally warned them several times.....

not that I am a horrible person or anything but nobody in this working world has ever done me any favours

[ihunnieibee]

My question to the OP is...

Do you pay them per hour?

If so, you are paying them to be there the time that you want them, and that if it does happen to be busy and they arent there on time then it makes them a lot less valuable to you. I've seen this problem in a lot of thais. If you put your foot down and be firm about it, either they will respect your rules or you should let them go. There are plenty of people in this world looking for jobs right now and you don't need to put up with people who can't respect your hours or procedures. Especially like being on time. I'm almost never late and I can't understand how when some people know they have to be somewhere at a certain time they never are. The occasional lateness is acceptable but honestly, who forgets what time the have to be at work, and has and "emergency" EVERY SINGLE DAY... come on...

[Jimjim]

Get a time clock which they use punch in and out. Pay them only for the hours they're there. Or, tell the lazier ones to come at 8 when you really only need their by 9.

[Cuban]

It's too late. The employees are already abusing his slackiness.

Choose one that you have been considering to replace and make an example of them.

The softly softly approach will not work on all people and if the underlying issue is lack of respect you might need to clear the decks and start again.

Q. Do your staff wai you when they arrive at work?

A. You are the boss they should, if not it's a sign that you are not the boss in their eyes.

[DanishViking]

Thanks all for your valuable inputs, however, there is one thing that makes it difficult for me, and that is, sometimes i do not have much work for them, and other times i do.

If i usually had a lot to do, it would have been much easier for me to be strict with them.

It shouldn't be too difficult I think. YOU pay them to be there, work or no work. Who's the boss ?

A logbook with check in - and check out times does it. Only pay for the time they are available.

Written warning if it goes too far - second time OUT.

[RAZZELL]

Time clock. Punch in/Punch out.

If it can work in a bar with some of those wasters it can work in any business!

RAZZ

[kudroz]

What puzzles me is that you say they've got nothing to do sometimes. You could put a "Office To-Do List" on a board somewhere write some low-priority tasks you need to get done. Examples:

* Perfect Patrol; ask them to go make piles of papers, wipe the marks off the walls and align the decorations, etc (if you are OCD like me)

* Update inventory of office supplies

* Water plants

* etc

When they've got nothing of importance to do, they must do tasks that is on the Office To-Do List. When the task is done, they can strike it out and write their name next to it. Check the list daily and add new tasks as you see fit.

Ask your employees to be present at least 10 minutes before the office opens so they're ready to work at 8:00. If someone shows up late, go talk to him quietly and demand he shows up at least 10 minutes before the office opens tomorrow. He will probably won't ask you why, if he does - he is not respecting your authority and you have bigger problems than employee punctuality. Fire the ones who are not complying, they're setting a bad example and frustrating the rest of your staff.

Edited April 29, 2009 by kudroz

[ozsamurai]

Pay them in cash daily at 9am ONLY!! end of problem.

[Briggsy]

Get a clocking in machine and record all late arrivals.

Have a fine system. e.g. 3 lates in a month = fine of 500 Baht. No lates = bonus of 500 Baht.

Also tie the annual number of lates to the annual increment.

Many Thai companies do this.

Give them a clear framework and don't be lenient.

[ronz28]

It really depends on the business and their duties but it sounds like you may have some flexibility. Some businesses use flex time but still their times need to be scheduled in advance. Since they all have cell phones, you could have a rule that they must call you if they will be more than 15 minutes late and you can tell them no...its a problem... I need you here now because we are slammed with business or ok but you will need to work early or late on whatever day the boss chooses to make up for this. I wouldn't let it go even if you are flexible... or the expectation is there are no real regular hours of work.

[BigSnake]

Verb warning first, writing warning second, third doc the pay, fourth send them PACKING

[teacup]

You have to look at the big picture first.

All of your employees should feel that they are prized employees and team players. If they don't then there is a problem.

Then the next step is to show favorism or give rewards/ formal recognition to the one that never showed up late. I would bet your problem of having the late or no show will be reduced.

Thai people love recognition, ribbon, and trophy, btw.

[harrry]

THe first thing I would do is check if the starting time is for some reason inconvienient. If the workers must rely on transport does its timeing mean that it arrives after the expected startingtime or if the employees must come an hour early to catch it.. Also check that if there are a large pecentage of mothers that the times do not conflict with getting the kids to school.

Formal flexitime is ok if you want to impliment it but can be an adminidtrative nightmare.

Just because there is no work does not mean the employee should not be there. You can allways find work that need to be doing preparing for the next work surge or mainaining the area. Of course these quiet times could be periods where you can allow leave for short periods if they are asked for for family committments.

Document infractions and be clear that late arrival is disruptive and without good reason will have severe consequences...graduated by warning, pay dock, dismissal.

[longway]

I am going to assume that you have some kind of service business like a thai massage place and the emplyees are paid per customer not by the hour.

What I would suggest is that you should allow the employees to decide among themselves who can come in late each day. So everyone gets a turn and they police themselves. Obviously you would limit the number of employees who can come late, you should also be able to call them up if you are busy and get them to come in asap.