During our formal study, we had ‘minimum attendance’ prescribed as a requirement to pass the course. It does not matter if you score A+ for the exam. if you did not meet the minimum attendance, wham! You failed. Then you complied until you graduated, you look for a job, thinking that you are stepping into the freedom of adulthood, and wham! Your employer specified a strict on-time morning attendance as part of your performance assessment. Time passed by, you moved to another job, and wham! You are still required to be at the company’s doorstep at 8 a.m. (or earlier), every day.
This morning attendance did not come from the education system, but the industrial age, where workers are treated like raw materials, needed to be fully controlled and utilized for maximum output (not that all workers are treated humanely today). Control is fine. Order is good. It is also good to remember that we have transcended that age, into the Knowledge Economy.
‘Attendance’ means as little as ‘having your workers present on-time, where they need to be’. It does not guarantee that they will perform their duties with their fullest capability, or complete it on-time. Which one is the least important: Reporting time, output quality, or completion timeliness?
We should not mixed ‘attendance’ and ‘punctuality’. I am not saying that timeliness is not important. If you have a meeting scheduled, make sure you are there on-time, and fully prepared. If you committed to complete task at 3pm, complete it before the due.
One valuable lesson that I got while working in a Swiss company was: “If you cannot be punctual, you cannot work.” I would rather stab myself on the leg, rather than being late for a meeting with a Swiss colleague (okay I may be exaggerating a little bit there). The Swiss, Germans, and Austrians are the most respectable workers because of their punctuality (no, this is not an exaggeration).
If you have your colleagues, subordinates, or even your boss, who regularly come (reasonably) late yet deliver their duties with high quality, please do not bother them, and give them the credits that any respectable knowledge worker deserves.
If you are in HR Dept: you know what to do with your attendance system after this. Do the right thing. Be smart.
This morning attendance did not come from the education system, but the industrial age, where workers are treated like raw materials, needed to be fully controlled and utilized for maximum output (not that all workers are treated humanely today). Control is fine. Order is good. It is also good to remember that we have transcended that age, into the Knowledge Economy.
‘Attendance’ means as little as ‘having your workers present on-time, where they need to be’. It does not guarantee that they will perform their duties with their fullest capability, or complete it on-time. Which one is the least important: Reporting time, output quality, or completion timeliness?
We should not mixed ‘attendance’ and ‘punctuality’. I am not saying that timeliness is not important. If you have a meeting scheduled, make sure you are there on-time, and fully prepared. If you committed to complete task at 3pm, complete it before the due.
One valuable lesson that I got while working in a Swiss company was: “If you cannot be punctual, you cannot work.” I would rather stab myself on the leg, rather than being late for a meeting with a Swiss colleague (okay I may be exaggerating a little bit there). The Swiss, Germans, and Austrians are the most respectable workers because of their punctuality (no, this is not an exaggeration).
If you have your colleagues, subordinates, or even your boss, who regularly come (reasonably) late yet deliver their duties with high quality, please do not bother them, and give them the credits that any respectable knowledge worker deserves.
If you are in HR Dept: you know what to do with your attendance system after this. Do the right thing. Be smart.
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