Being late from time to time is normal. You run out of gas, forget to set your alarm, or hit some unexpected traffic — it’s just part of life. Yet, in the corporate world, being late is a punishable offense.
An HR consultant on TikTok, @hr_explainedcautioned employers against disciplining tardiness and shared a piece of advice for consistently late employees.
The HR consultant urged workers who are ‘often late’ to request an accommodation at work.
“If you’re an employee who’s often late and struggles with being on time, you may be able to get an accommodation for that,” she began her video. “And managers you should be careful before just disciplining someone who’s late.”
She explained what we all know but that many bosses seem to forget — people are late for a variety of reasons, often outside of their control. “Lateness could be due to a mistake, lack of responsibility, external factors like car trouble or snow, a sudden illness, or a disability, like ADHD and/or Autism,” she wrote in the caption of her video.
The HR consultant highlighted the latter explanation, stating, “If the reason they’re late or struggling to be on time to things is related to a medical condition, like ADHD or autism … the ADA law applies.”
The ADA or the Americans with Disabilities Act was instituted to ensure workers with disabilities are not discriminated against while on the job and includes protections against things like tardiness retaliation. If an employee proves that struggling with time management is a symptom of their disability, then their employer is required to discuss reasonable accommodations.
Time blindness is common among people with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder.
Dr. Russel Barkleyan internationally recognized authority on ADHD, said, “ADHD is at its heart a blindness to time or technically to be exact it is a nearsightedness to the future.”
“Just as people who are nearsighted can only read things close at hand, people with ADHD can only deal with things near in time,” he continued. “The further out the event lies, the less they are capable of dealing with it, and this is why everything is left of the last minute.”
People with time blindness often struggle to meet deadlines, manage their time, stick to a schedule, and estimate how long something will take.
Managers can accommodate employees with time blindness in several ways.
The HR consultant suggested managers accommodate frequently late employees by not scheduling them to attend meetings at the start of the day or right after lunch.
“You can help them to set up multiple reminders or personally remind them,” she added. “You can allow them a more flexible schedule or workday, meaning if they’re an hour or two late in the morning, they can work an hour or two later in the evening or make up some time on weekends.”
“If interruptions or other distractions get in the way of them being on time,” she continued, “you can look at reducing those things in the workplace, like blocking off time where they won’t be interrupted, making sure they have a quieter place to work or noise-canceling headphones.”
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.
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