The Secret To Success Is Attendance
This article was originally published in the Driving Force with the Detroit Metropolitan Apartment Association- July 2017
The Secret To Success Is Attendance- “ 80% of success is showing up.”- Woody Allen
There are a lot of quotes that embody what it takes to be successful; the common theme I have found to ring true with these quotes and my experience is that your attendance will drastically impact your success.
We look at attendance statistics in school; one in ten students in kindergarten and first grade are chronically absent (2-4 days a month). By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
Attendance in the work place is just as important, and will effect the outcome of promotions, pay increases, job duties, getting offered a permanent position (if you are temporary) and of course, keeping your job long term.
Attendance is among the 10 employee work ethics most valued by employers, according to Tennessee Technology Center at Hartsville.
Poor Attendance Affects More Than We Know
Absenteeism affects co-workers, clients, your company brand as well personal brand. Attendance issues create more work for others, or leaves important work undone. One persons’ absence or continual tardiness in a small office can disrupt productivity schedules, cause others to reschedule planned leave and reflect badly on the business because customer service suffers. Poor attendance also causes resentment among co-workers who follow the rules and practice good work ethics and attendance.
Poor Attendance Will Catch Up With You
When employers check references, they may ask about attendance. The most qualified job applicant can lose out because of attendance issues. Poor attendance says a candidate is insensitive to co-workers, unaccountable for his/her responsibilities and uninterested in the company success.
How Can We Approve Our Attendance?
Show up. Easier said than done, I know, and Monday can come fast and it’s easy to let our personal lives and challenges trickle into our workflow. I often think about the old story we heard as kids about the boy who cried wolf too many times that when he was truly in need, no one came to his aid. Same theory is applied to poor attendance at your place of business; if a worker continually calls off (1 or more times per month) the employer will grow tired of the poor attendance, causing them to discredit the reasons for the call offs and will become less likely to approve time off for vacations, sick leave and in severe cases will find someone else who can make it to work.
Manage your personal business on your own time (evenings, weekends, vacation days, lunch breaks etc.) As a business owner who can see the daily effects that attendance on my workplace; I am much more willing to work with my workers coming in late, leaving early or taking an extended lunch to address items that can’t be done on their own time if they have been good with attendance in the past; but it is earned not just given.
Plan ahead. We have stuff that does spill into our work schedules, and sometimes it is unavoidable, this is where you need to give as much notice to your employer as possible. I will be much more accepting of an absence if I can be given a heads up. If you tell me you need a day off next week to take care of something, it’s much easier for me to plan ahead and adjust for the coverage than to have someone tell me last minute or not at all that they will be gone.
Good attendance is one of the pillars to success and one of the simplest to accomplish, it just takes commitment to showing up everyday to work!
