Woman Texts Boss That She’s Going To Be Late For Work, And He Has Best Response Ever
Rokas L BoredPanda staff
If you’re asking your boss for a favor it’s better to be honest about it. When Jenn had found herself running late for work for the first time in years, she texted her superior in advance. After she explained the situation, however, he responded in a way that probably surprised the whole company. To better understand where it came from, you need a little background information about Jenn and her work ethic.
“This lady has been with the company for about 8 years,” the boss wrote. “This was the first time Jenn has been late in nearly six years. She missed work one other time in her nearly eight-year career with us, and that was when her son had his wisdom teeth removed about nine months into her employment.”
This time, she was late eleven minutes. “Not too terrible, if you’re asking me,” the boss added. “She’s also a very sweet older lady that the guys in the office call ‘Mom.’ Jenn also calls herself ‘Mom’ in company emails, etc. She fully embraces the name and has done so since her last child left for college almost five years ago.”
Now that you know know what kind of employee Jenn is, you’re ready for her and her boss’ exchange. Scroll down to check out why she was late and what answer she got.
The boss wanted to add a few more details
Some people liked his response so much, they wanted to know if the boss was hiring
What’s your boss like? Let’s talk in the comments below
Popular on Bored Panda
What do you think ?
This is always nice to read, employers seeing their staff as human rather than just units of industry.
Yeah too right. They actually call us "resources" to our face where I work. 😐
We are called fee-burners.. yes, to our face too.
Yea, I work at a place where they still use the term Human Resources - use you up, toss you aside; you're expendable and only worth what you can give THEM. (Hello, Yale.)
good workers getting rewarded! brilliant.
Crazy, right?
"One minute late is still late." - my boss at my last review
Wow, when will bosses understand that it doesn't matter when or where the employee works, as long as he works the agreed upon weekly hours? Sometimes I work at night, sometimes in the weekends, as long as I make 40 hours a week.
Be careful. That’s what I was doing. They let me carry on with this for over a year, working at night. Then out of virtually nowhere they jumped on me and said it was unacceptable and I was taking advantage of the company’ largesse, etc etc.
Depends on what type of work, the situation and the people involved. In a place where people are relying on timeliness to transfer responsibility from one person to another (e.g. wait staff, factory workers, etc.,) or if there is a dependency of the absent (e.g. meeting, interview, etc.,) then it's plain rude for someone to be late. In those cases, one minute is still late. That aside, this woman deserved a break (and the tickets). She earned it by proving that the job was important by being timely for the eight years prior to this situation, and by being honest about the situation when it happened.
I agree with you for a large part, because I too work in a field where I can be flexible, but it also depends a bit on your kind of work. If you work in a shop, on a telephonic help desk with certain opening and rush hours, or as a teacher for instance, it will annoy your coworkers or customers.
"If you are 5 minutes early, you are 10 minutes late"-US Air Force. It really is important to be on time, you never know when your being late could cause a waterfall of problems for others. Also, don't you think they feel their time is as important as you believe yours to be? It's just being respectful, to others and of yourself, too. (PS if you already haven't, you need to set every clock in your house to your boss's clock. An old tip from my very first boss.)
Respect is a two way street. And respect can be earned in more ways than just punctuality. A boss that underpays their employees or doesn’t look at the body of work (rather than the time the employee entered the office), or doesn’t treat employees fairly has not earned respect or timeliness. It’s important to be on time for important meetings and such. It’s important to complete all your work to satisfaction. It simply isn’t important to be at a desk at 8:59 rather than 9:04. Not a single thing is gained from that other than a gag worthy sense of power that the boss gets. It’s gross and illogical.
I also forgot to add, if you can call ahead and let them know you'll be a bit late, I think that's being polite and respectful, too. After all, life does happen. (I never wrote up any of the people I was responsible for if they were late IF they called to let me know first.)
There are lots of other fields where being productive and creative is more important than coming to office 15minutes before the office hours. I know an IT company where emoloyees come at any time they want, it's just important to get their tasks done, but it's a lot about trusting the emoloyees, respecting the boss and not using this policy in a dishonest manner
Not just air force, that's pretty much business world standards. My current job is very relaxed about that sort of thing, and so is anyplace ive interned for, but i usually try to be 10 min early just so i can settle myself in snd be ready 😁 But even if you have a laid back boss and still come in early, then you just stand out that much more.
You should be looking for another boss or job!
He definetly needs to be more lenient.
He's right.
This is always nice to read, employers seeing their staff as human rather than just units of industry.
Yeah too right. They actually call us "resources" to our face where I work. 😐
We are called fee-burners.. yes, to our face too.
Yea, I work at a place where they still use the term Human Resources - use you up, toss you aside; you're expendable and only worth what you can give THEM. (Hello, Yale.)
good workers getting rewarded! brilliant.
Crazy, right?
"One minute late is still late." - my boss at my last review
Wow, when will bosses understand that it doesn't matter when or where the employee works, as long as he works the agreed upon weekly hours? Sometimes I work at night, sometimes in the weekends, as long as I make 40 hours a week.
Be careful. That’s what I was doing. They let me carry on with this for over a year, working at night. Then out of virtually nowhere they jumped on me and said it was unacceptable and I was taking advantage of the company’ largesse, etc etc.
Depends on what type of work, the situation and the people involved. In a place where people are relying on timeliness to transfer responsibility from one person to another (e.g. wait staff, factory workers, etc.,) or if there is a dependency of the absent (e.g. meeting, interview, etc.,) then it's plain rude for someone to be late. In those cases, one minute is still late. That aside, this woman deserved a break (and the tickets). She earned it by proving that the job was important by being timely for the eight years prior to this situation, and by being honest about the situation when it happened.
I agree with you for a large part, because I too work in a field where I can be flexible, but it also depends a bit on your kind of work. If you work in a shop, on a telephonic help desk with certain opening and rush hours, or as a teacher for instance, it will annoy your coworkers or customers.
"If you are 5 minutes early, you are 10 minutes late"-US Air Force. It really is important to be on time, you never know when your being late could cause a waterfall of problems for others. Also, don't you think they feel their time is as important as you believe yours to be? It's just being respectful, to others and of yourself, too. (PS if you already haven't, you need to set every clock in your house to your boss's clock. An old tip from my very first boss.)
Respect is a two way street. And respect can be earned in more ways than just punctuality. A boss that underpays their employees or doesn’t look at the body of work (rather than the time the employee entered the office), or doesn’t treat employees fairly has not earned respect or timeliness. It’s important to be on time for important meetings and such. It’s important to complete all your work to satisfaction. It simply isn’t important to be at a desk at 8:59 rather than 9:04. Not a single thing is gained from that other than a gag worthy sense of power that the boss gets. It’s gross and illogical.
I also forgot to add, if you can call ahead and let them know you'll be a bit late, I think that's being polite and respectful, too. After all, life does happen. (I never wrote up any of the people I was responsible for if they were late IF they called to let me know first.)
There are lots of other fields where being productive and creative is more important than coming to office 15minutes before the office hours. I know an IT company where emoloyees come at any time they want, it's just important to get their tasks done, but it's a lot about trusting the emoloyees, respecting the boss and not using this policy in a dishonest manner
Not just air force, that's pretty much business world standards. My current job is very relaxed about that sort of thing, and so is anyplace ive interned for, but i usually try to be 10 min early just so i can settle myself in snd be ready 😁 But even if you have a laid back boss and still come in early, then you just stand out that much more.
You should be looking for another boss or job!
He definetly needs to be more lenient.
He's right.