Basically if we're late and another staff member has to stay late to cover for us then they get paid for the time and the person who's late loses out on the time, though if we're running late and its not essential for someone else to cover til you get there then they usually dont mind if you stay late to make up the time.

We have core times from 9:30 to 3:00pm, but unless you miss a meeting, nobody actually cares if you miss that time...

"unless you miss a meeting, nobody actually cares"

You have compulsory meetings? What a quaint idea...

Out of curiosity I wanted to know what was everyones experience with coming in late to work? Do your employers care as long as you work 7 or 8 hours? If so how tolerant are they? is there 0 minute tolerance, 5 minute, 15 minute etc...

Since I'm flexible with them, they are flexible with me

And that is the why it should be, cause you are going to work to solve problems not to be on tine on work.

Out of curiosity I wanted to know what was everyones experience with coming in late to work? Do your employers care as long as you work 7 or 8 hours? If so how tolerant are they? is there 0 minute tolerance, 5 minute, 15 minute etc...

Since I'm flexible with them, they are flexible with me

And that is the why it should be, cause you are going to work to solve problems not to be on tine on work.

You're assuming that everyone else is employed as a programmer. I'm a manager of a restaurant, so I do actually need to be on time as I have the keys.

For some jobs like high volume phone support, being on time is critical.

You're assuming that everyone else is employed as a programmer. I'm a manager of a restaurant, so I do actually need to be on time as I have the keys.

Yeah seeing we're on GD.Net, I was taking this topic to be within the games industry, but the answers would/should be very different in the broader workforce. Pretty much any kind of service or retail oriented job is going to have some strict time constraints on it.

When hiring games staff though, you're basically commissioning a piece of art from an artisan plus inventor. Sure you can put a constraint on them as to when you'd like to be able to present/sell the piece, but mandating that the artisan/inventor be present at a desk of your choosing for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week is just silly, it's irrelevant to the work you've tasked them with. The way I see it, you're sponsoring these inventors in exchange for them to dedicate their minds to your cause. You pay their living expenses and top up their savings account, and in exchange you own the copyright over their creative output for that period.
If there's evidence that fixed 40 hour weeks and squabbling over break times and punctuality improve creative output, then sure, enforce those policies with an iron grip... otherwise, find out what does enhance the creative output of the people that you're sponsoring.

p.s. is anyone else annoyed that every new vote in the poll bumps this thread back up to the top of the active topics list?

When hiring games staff though, you're basically commissioning a piece of art from an artisan plus inventor. Sure you can put a constraint on them as to when you'd like to be able to present/sell the piece, but mandating that the artisan/inventor be present at a desk of your choosing for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week is just silly, it's irrelevant to the work you've tasked them with. The way I see it, you're sponsoring these inventors in exchange for them to dedicate their minds to your cause. You pay their living expenses and top up their savings account, and in exchange you own the copyright over their creative output for that period.
If there's evidence that fixed 40 hour weeks and squabbling over break times and punctuality improve creative output, then sure, enforce those policies with an iron grip... otherwise, find out what does enhance the creative output of the people that you're sponsoring.

Just to give a real world counter example, I work on the east coast and a lot of our art is made in England, but we also work with people on the west coast. Most people need to be on call so the people in england aren't forced to stay late into the night and to be there later in case anybody on the west coast needs something from us.

It's easy to use the artist/inventor argument, but when that artist/inventor is inhibiting the other artists/inventors from doing the work you comissioned them for because they have a different schedule it's a problem most fairly solved by the, "be at work from x-y," solution.

p.s. is anyone else annoyed that every new vote in the poll bumps this thread back up to the top of the active topics list?

Yes. This always annoys me about polls. I brought it up once and someone said they were hesitant to change it because some people might care about new poll results.

In my last full-time job all minutes are counted by the punch clock and we cannot be in later than 10 minutes late. This was a problem for my commute as it was 2 hours long from home to work. Needing to take three forms of public transportation lends to multiple possible points of error. So forget if the trains are late- that happened to me on two occasions, missing the hourly bus, so I ordered a cab out of my pocket money just so I can be there on time (it was at least 4 miles away from my last train stop so that eats away almost 1 hours' worth of salary).

Right now, as I'm on a contract, it feels almost the total opposite. I'm expected to come two or three days a week at the office but lately there have been no projects assigned to me, and I won't get my next one probably until the first week of March. So possibly because I'm a contractor on a pay-for-deliverables basis, my boss hasn't really given any notice or concern to me that I haven't been working.

p.s. is anyone else annoyed that every new vote in the poll bumps this thread back up to the top of the active topics list?

So that's what's happening! I kept seeing threads with no new posts bumped and thought I was going mad....

I don't work but if I did I would likely be first one in and last one out, as long as the job was fun and if it wasn't I would quit.

At home my cat seems to take the role of being in charge and usually she gives me 5 - 15 mins to 'prepare' before she starts meowing / scratching things for attention.

Best boss ever