Being late to work happens. But imagine being fired the very first time you weren't on time.
That's what happened for one unlucky employee, according to a recent reddit thread.
Fortunately for this unfortunate worker, it seems they have colleagues standing with them in solidarity, and they have rather brilliantly vowed to all turn up late until their employer rehires them.
The original post from reddit user No_StopItStepbro read: "Co-worker who has never been late in 7+ years, gets fired for first time being late…
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"This happened last week and today Monday we just found out he was fired for being 20 minutes late FOR HIS FIRST TIME EVER… tomorrow me and ALL my coworkers will be late and will continue to come in late until they rehire him."
While many reddit users have praised the collective employee action, others were less impressed.
Meanwhile, other reddit users have been quick to chime in with their experiences of bad employers.
One user complained that an unavoidable late day landed them in the s**t.
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They wrote: "In my last job, I was late one time in 6 years. It was a massive snowstorm. I left for work at 5:00 and was at my desk at 9:05.
"I didn't get fired, but I got a stern talking to that day and the mfer actually wrote it into my annual review. Being on time was a performance goal for the next year, because I was five minutes late one time in a day that took more than four hours to get to work."
However, another employee had a much more sympathetic and understanding boss.
They explained: "I started to drive to work a couple of years ago, and found myself stuck traffic so bad it made the national news.
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"I was so stressed, I kept calling my boss with updates every 30 minutes or so. I was about 4 hours late (for a 36 minute journey).
"Pulled into a room, 'don't worry about it.'"
While the original post was referring to employment in the US, which can vary from state to state according to each state's individual laws, the rules are different in the UK.
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Turning up late to work once shouldn't result in being fired; in fact, UK law states that only persistent lateness would result in potential dismissal or disciplinary action at work.
If you're consistently late and an agreement cannot be reached after your employer has brought up the issue, then they may choose to issue you with a disciplinary, which could potentially lead to dismissal.
However, to do this, they would need to have documented proof of any allegations, such as time sheets that prove you were late and show a repeated pattern.
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