On CP Time and How to Handle Being So Late to Work It's Just Triflin
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Can we talk about CP time?
It's a thing. And if you come from a cultural or family background where starting times are more of a suggestion than a mandate, it can be a real challenge.
Whether you believe this to be rooted in our cultural differences or a pernicious and offensive stereotype, the truth is many of your new coworkers may be primed to expect you to be late to work just because of your skin tone. When you are, they will be quick to be resentful, assuming you think you can flout the rules everyone else must follow.
If you're Punctual Pam and believe "to be early is to be on time and to be on time is to be late," this may not be a problem for you. But, if you're like me, where being within 15-30 minutes of the discussed start time is considered on time, if not early, this may be something you have to adjust for in your career.
The simplest answer to dealing with CP time is the easiest – watch the clock and be on time. For your first year*, be early or at the very least on time.
I will admit this was a huge challenge for me. HUGE. At one of my early jobs, my manager would ask me "what happened this morning?" if I came in at 9:05. Now, I'm thinking this is New York City and I take the subway, there are million reasons everyday that I could be 5 minutes late (with 999,990 falling squarely on the shoulders of the MTA). But she didn't care. Her thinking was the work day starts at 9, so you need to do what you have to do to be here at 9. Which meant I had to start going to bed earlier, so I could wake up earlier and no matter what still needed to happen, I had to be walking out of the house at 8:30. Not putting on shoes, not grabbing toast, but coat on, bag on shoulder, keys in hand walking out the door.
But as much as we may plan, we’ve all been late before. And we’re all going to be late again. So what do you do when despite your best efforts, your CP time runs amok and makes you extra, super duper triflin and late for work. You rely on one of my favorite tools – "Selective Overcommunication."
Let’s say you’ve overslept. Like really overslept. Like going to be more than an hour late overslept. This is how you craft your message around that and protect your reputation–
Step #1: Get Out In Front
First thing to do is email, text or call your manager as early as you can. Like as soon as you wake up and realize that you’re going to be late. Tell him that you’ve slept through your alarm, you’re so sorry and will be in as fast as you can, giving him a time when he can expect you. Then do that. Make sure if you say you're going to be there by 10:30, be there by 10:30. Give yourself some padding on the time promised if you're still getting yourself together. As soon as you get into the office, seek him out, reiterate your apology and get right to work.
But, we know more than just your direct manager’s opinion of you influences your professional reputation. So, here’s where you employ selective overcommunication and play Olivia Pope to do some damage control on your own behalf.
Step #2: Control the Message
Don't just go straight to your desk and think no one else noticed. They did. And they're exchanging glances, shady comments and IMs. Make sure to mention to a teammate or coworker how bad you feel for being late and showing that you understand that added stress it’s put on you and your workload.
“I can’t believe I slept through my alarm this morning! I’m going to have to knuckle down to get this report done by the team meeting at noon.”
Then turn around and get right to work.
If someone comes over to socialize, you can use the same thing
Sorry can’t chat right now, I overslept so now it’s crunch time to finish the report.”
This will generally turn them from potential adversaries who feel that you think the rules don’t apply to you into sympathetic allies. This will also endear them to you and increase your chances that they can diffuse any negative gossip. If you’ve overcommunicated, now when your coworker across the floor gets a bitchy IM about your lateness, she can respond with “yeah, her alarm just didn’t go off this morning.” After all, we’ve all been late before.
Note: Don’t share the why behind your oversleeping with your peers.
You can say what happened without going into the details of your night or that you might be a bit hungover or that you overslept because you passed out on the couch and forgot to plug your dead phone into the charger. None of this matters and will only make you look bad, not help you bond. Focus on the what and how you’re going to make up for it. This can make a funny story to share later once you’ve already established your reputation and value.
Step #3: Go For Extra Credit
Finally, for good measure, stay a little later to make up for the time you’ve missed. Again, you selectively overcommunicate so that your team knows that you take your job seriously. This might mean finishing your project and emailing it to your manager at 7 pm so that he sees you’ve stayed past your normal 5:30. Or, this could mean skipping out on happy hour drinks with coworkers and letting them know why.
Remember – it’s not what you say but how you say it. So make sure your tone conveys that you feel bad for messing up, not that you feel superior for skipping the fun.
"Damn, I really wish I could come to Morgan's for dollar draft night but I screwed myself being late this morning. You guys go ahead, I have to stay behind and get this deck finished. I'll be there next time."
One last word of caution – you only get about one of these per year before you start to look irresponsible and unreliable. It will take years of strong work product to undo a bad impression made early in your tenure at a given company. And, as I mentioned, we do have the stereotype of being late already working against us, so use this one wisely.
It’s always easiest to avoid messing up in the first place. Try your hardest not to be triflin in your first year on the job or in a role. But life happens, so when it does, get out in front of it and make sure the message you’re conveying is that you’re a responsible professional who is serious about your work.
*If you’ve proven yourself an asset to your team, shown the value you bring and/or proven yourself indispensable sooner than a year, you can afford to ease up and give yourself more leeway. At the beginning of your career, that will very rarely happen though. When you are unproven, it will take about a year for your peers and colleagues to trust and respect you.
