Why do managers care about arriving 5 minutes early?
Managers often enforce strict start times by demanding employees arrive 10 to 15 minutes before their scheduled shift to settle in, boot up computers, or make coffee. This creates an unfair double standard where workers are penalized for arriving at their actual start time while expected to provide free labor beforehand.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- It goes quiet, then comes back — 3 separate clusters since January 2026.
- It is not one crowd: 7 people on Reddit and 1 on Stack Exchange ran into the same thing.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1looking elsewhere if they are that pettyDid this help you?
- 2planning my exitDid this help you?
- 3Checking the employee handbook for notice requirements and work hour policiesDid this help you?
- 4Asking a coworker to cover the mandatory training as a favorDid this help you?
- 5Hiring a babysitter or relying on family and friends for the one-hour gapDid this help you?
- 6Talking to HR about the point systemDid this help you?
- 7Finding a new job and quittingDid this help you?
- 8Drafting a company-wide email reminder about scheduled start timesDid this help you?
- 9Conducting individual meetings and performance memos for late employeesDid this help you?
- 10Staying a little late to make up for arriving lateDid this help you?
- 11Dialing back hours to a hard limit per weekDid this help you?
- 12Testing the waters after the first few months on the jobDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I had a manager actually tell me “well work starts at 8:30 but we really want people coming in about 10-15 minutes earlier”.”source ↗
“I was told off in my review for “always coming in late” at 8:20 instead of at 8:00 every day. Then, I was also told off for “leaving early” at 5:15 every day.”source ↗
“My current office manager is like that. Work starts at 7, so be in your chair and ready to open your emails at 7. If that means you need to get there at 6:50 to make your cup of coffee, then that's what needs to happen”source ↗
“I hear some offices are chill wondering if an employee is constantly 10-15 minutes late even after warning do you fire them?”source ↗
“If you have been warned and continue to not arrive on time, you should plan on needing a new job.”source ↗
“I'm the HRBP at a mid-size company and we've had office staff coming in whenever. Some are 15-30 min late pretty regularly and it's kind of become the norm since nobody really enforced it before.”source ↗
“They want HR to lead it it’s a small company I’m the only HR person here”source ↗
“Managers need to be enforcing this. They’re having you do it because they know people won’t be happy and they’d rather the HR person get the hate rather than themselves.”source ↗
“My main issue is I have 2 small kids, a 1 year old girl and a 3 year old boy and my wife works in the mornings and gets home right after 3:00pm. Once she gets home I have to speed up to work.”source ↗
“I explained all that to my team manager, I tried to be flexible and told her I could watch the video after work but she said no.”source ↗
“I was told that if I don't show up at 3pm tomorrow I would get a point as if I was late for work. I don't know what to do, I just can't leave my kids alone at home.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 16Why can't employees ever use the self service portal?
- 15How to deal with a manager who is confidently wrong
- 5Why do administrators reward misbehaving students?
- 4My manager passes all their stress down to our team
- 5How do I deal with non-technical managers and constant interruptions?
- 4Employee onboarding workflow for small teams