BEST OF THE WEB Better Late than Never?

Late employees are bad for business.
 
Any landscape company owner will attest to the problems associated with tardy workers. Crews stand around. Trucks fail to get loaded. Timetables and schedules get delayed.

In the end, lost time equals lost dollars and cents. In fact, one in 10 workers – roughly 13 percent – admit to arriving late to work at least once a week, according to CareerBuilder.com, and 24 percent fess up to arriving late to their jobs at least once a month. As a whole, tardiness costs U.S. businesses more than $3 billion a year in lost productivity, according to H.R. Magazine.
 
Lawn & Landscape Message Board participants recently discussed their unique ways of dealing with late employees and whether severe consequences actually brought about positive results. Nearly all landscape contractors who contributed to this topic loop admitted to dealing with employee tardiness at one point or another. Likewise, most post it’s a problem that must be addressed immediately.
 
Bill Smallwood, owner of W.J. Smallwood Landscaping in Salem, N.H., posts he sat his employees down one morning and reinforced to them the importance of arriving on time for work. “Next day, a foreman shows up 15 minutes late, his truck had already been loaded by the crew and they were standing by the truck waiting for him,” he says. “As he climbed into the truck I walked over and told him to have a good day, his services were no longer needed. Next day, I had another guy show up 10 minutes late and told him the same thing. I haven’t had anyone late –  and not call – since.”
 
Terry Duran, owner of Preferred Property Maintenance in Fremont, Calif., suggests a method he found successful with his kid’s baseball team. “Tell them, ‘Show up 15 minutes early or you’re late,’” Duran says. “I received an unbelievably positive response from this tactic.”
 
Landscape contractor Chad Freed suggests curing tardiness by punishing the last person reporting to work that day with the worst job of the day. “Around here it is hard to get good employees,” he explains. “My employees are good, but a couple of them have a problem showing up on time. This will solve the problem without having to fire anyone.
 

“It’s not my fault that they came to work late,” Freed adds. “It’s their own fault. If everyone shows up on time then they can work out who does what themselves.”
 
Contractor Andrew Aksar disagrees with Freed’s thinking, adding assigning grunt work as punishment only creates resentment and lowers morale among workers. Rather, Aksar prefers to make his late employees pay – literally.
 
“I usually dock the guy’s pay for each minute they’re late times the number of employees that had to wait on him,” says Aksar, the president of Outdoor Finishes in Walkersville, Md. “Most people are only working for a check, not because they believe in you and the company.”
 
According to Duran, the remedy to most employee issues is to provide an environment whereby they want to be there working for your company. “If they see potential with what we’re providing, they tend to flourish and everyone looks good,” he posts.

OTHER PROBLEMS. Many contractors fear taking strict measures to combat tardiness will only drive away good employees.
 
“Finding good help around here is very hard,” Freed says. “What should I do? Should I fire good employees who just need a little motivation to arrive to work on-time?”
 
But tardiness, some contractors argue, may be one symptom of a far greater problem. Good employees are not only talented in the field, but they also show up for work on time. “If they’re showing up for work late, they aren’t very ambitious,” Smallwood says. “So how do you think they are doing in the field when you turn your back. I am guessing they aren’t going gung-ho.

 
“There is nothing worse than losing a trained employee – well, yes there is, keeping a lazy, good-for-nothing employee,” Smallwood adds. “Cut your losses and find someone who will give the effort, someone who wants to excel and please. Your life will be better in the long run.”
 
TO EXTREMES. While some contractors take a “better late than never approach,” others believe there is no room for coddling employees and putting up with their shenanigans.
 
“Fire them,” Smallwood suggests. “Stop wasting your time, it is not worth it.
 
“Money is not a motivational factor,” he adds. “Either they have a work ethic or they don’t. Throwing more money at a lazy man is only going to make them a rich lazy man. Giving a lazy man the day off is a blessing. And they don’t think about the money until a week from Friday when they are $100 short.”
 
Some contractors argue that sifting good employees from bad ones through extreme measures such as firing or fining doesn’t permit a well-run company from dealing with this problem naturally. For example, Contractor Paul Wieting, Seagull Lawn Services, Houston, Texas, at one time worked for a man who was very demanding but treated everyone with dignity. “All of the good workers loved working for him,” he says. “And the bad ones didn’t stay around.”