Pexels

Some people – we all know one or two – are perpetually late. They don’t mean anything by it, and they’re certainly not trying to be disrespectful, they just seem to lack the timekeeping abilities of others. Or else, they get easily distracted, or live very busy lives with lots of competing priorities.

Plenty of folk understand this, and are forgiving of latecomers, even giving habitually late people an earlier time knowing that they’ll most likely be late anyway. But others really, really despise lateness and can even end friendships or relationships over habitual relationships, seeing it as a sign that their time is not respected and they are not the other person’s priority.

But if there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that there are a few things that it’s really not okay to be late to, with work being one of the key things on that list. Because your employer is literally paying you to be in the building and ready to work from your start time, and if you keep falling short of that expectation, there’s bound to be consequences.

The guy in this story is quite aware of this, and keen to get to work on time. His girlfriend, however, has other ideas.

Read on to find out why.

AITA for wanting to be on time for work?

I recently got offered a great job at my girlfriend’s company after being unemployed for about a year. My girlfriend, let’s call her Sara, has been with this company for over a year. She referred me, I got the job and started this past Monday.

Since we live together, we decided to carpool to save time, gas, wear on our cars, etc. We are both salaried but have different hours – I need to be on-site by 8am and she usually gets there around 10am.

I told her she didn’t have to do this, but she insisted on making it work (we are both not morning people). Also she has the option of working from home two days a week, but for my first week she insisted on carpooling in for 8am with me.

I definitely appreciated it since I was nervous about starting a new job in a very new industry.

But Sara’s support didn’t come without some complications.

However, she is notoriously late for everything. I like getting into work at least ten to fifteen minutes early so I can settle in, gather my thoughts, etc., (for me, five minutes early is on time, on time is late, and anything after I get really stressed and frustrated.)

She’s familiar with the commute (it’s long, a bit over an hour) so I trusted her to get me to work on time for my first day.

I recently purchased a vehicle because my car was on its last legs and I had to get it towed three times the week before I started. I had to rely on her vehicle for the first two days because I needed to wait for the registration and sticker.

Long story short, I was late four out of five days on my first week.

Let’s see how the morning situation went down.

Every morning I bug her and tell her we need to leave by a certain time. She keeps insisting “it’s fine”. We work in different departments and I had been informed by multiple co-workers that my boss is nice, but definitely micromanages and is quite anal about time.

I informed Sara of this, but she does not seem to care. I had a meeting this morning at 8:15am (by this point I had my car) and I was waiting for her in the driveway. I was looking at the time and starting to get really stressed and honked the horn a few times.

She eventually came out and scolded me for honking the horn, saying our neighbors don’t appreciate it.

After speeding and driving aggressively (which I HATE doing) I arrived late and only about two minutes before my meeting started. I barely had time to take my coat off, let alone settle and prep for my meeting.

Read on to find out how this affected his job, and their relationship.

As a result, I was extremely flustered and could barely focus the rest of the morning. Yet she’s mad at ME.

She said since I’m salary it doesn’t matter, but again my department is different and in either case it doesn’t make a good first impression to be late multiple times on your first week (especially your first day!)

When we came home tonight, I expressed how negatively this affected me and that I had an awful day. I told her that from now on I will be leaving by a certain time, and if she’s not in the car then I am leaving without her and she can take her own car.

AITA?

It’s really great that this guy got the job that Sara referred him for, and it’s natural that he wants to make good first impressions and build good relationships with his boss and his colleagues.

But Sara’s poor timekeeping and casual attitude towards getting to work on time might inadvertently cost him those things, through no fault of his own.

He needs to put his foot down and make his own way to work, leaving her to arrive in her own time.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person thought that it was his right to be at work on time if he wanted.

While others thought he should just take himself.

Meanwhile, this Redditor had been in a similar situation.

It sucks that he’s so excited about having this job now, and yet his girlfriend’s behaviour is sabotaging it for him. It’s nice that they work in the same company and theoretically could travel together if they wanted to, but with the two hour difference in start times, it’s clear that – for now at least – it’s simply not practical. For both of their long-term happiness, as well as harmony in their relationship, unless she’s going to start being ready on time, it’s clear that they need to travel separately.

Yes it might not be the most efficient or cost-saving measure, but let’s be honest, two salaries is way better than one, and for him to keep this job – and not earn a terrible reputation in his first few weeks there – it’s important that he’s on time. It’s also about who he is as an individual and a worker, and if being on time is important to him, then that’s what he should be. Neither of them are morning people, so she should be allowed to have a lie in while he heads to work early – in time, they’ll both be much happier with this arrangement.