What happens when you are very late to work due to train disruption?

[Turmericcall]

I work in London, just outside central London. Many of my colleagues live locally and walk or bus/tube to work.

I live much further out, which they knew when, they employed me. In fact I accepted the job on the basis that I was assured I wouldn't need to be in the office very often. That's changed and I understand the reasons, but I wouldn't have accepted the job on that basis.

Anyway, I usually leave home at 7:10 to be in the office for 8:30, with an official start time of 9am. So I am "never" late, except when the trains are completely caput, like today. I am now on a moving train, but still 45 mins from work.

They're not going to like it and I accept I'm late, but what was I supposed to do?

Doesn't sound like you can do any more than you are. Given this is a rare occurrence, surely they'll understand? Just make sure you give them a heads up. Are you expecting them to be difficult about it? My workplace would not make an issue of it.

Surely everyone who lives in London is impacted by transport delays sometimes? My husband quite often ends up wfh more frequently that he'd like as there is a tree on the line or similar on the line into Waterloo.

They will understand!

These things happen. Can you make up the time later / another day?

I would expect any of my team to let me know and I'd reply just with a "no worries, see you when you get here".

It happens. Sometimes trains are crap. It's not a big deal.

Other than letting them know there's nothing that either you or they can do.

It's horrible, I know, I was recently stuck on a bus in stationary traffic due to 3 separate accidents on a city centre road. Luckily work were understanding and I wasn't the only person to be late. But it's so stressful just sitting there not being able to do anything.

If one of my team was usually punctual and late due to unforeseen train disruption today, no issue.
If regularly late, I’d have a conversation to understand whether they’re doing everything they can to be on time.

The thing with train disruption is you can go months with everything running smoothly and then you seem to get lots of problems close together. I'd say for the first year I had no problems at all, but there have been quite a few over the last 6 weeks.

@Turmericcall its OK, everyone in your office will have experienced the exact same thing at some point.

Does you being late inconvenience others? Is your work a shift handover type, or just a - late, so people can't get hold of you type.

The first would probably have more consequences and require more robust travel arrangements. The second, "crap happens" sometimes, and make sure important meetings are scheduled an hour or 2 after start time.

You couldn't do anything

At our work they'd just expect you to work the time back

Walk in, apologise and get on with your day.
You hardly caused the train issues yourself did you?

I’d just text/phone my boss and say the train is stopped etc and I’ll be late. Give an estimate.

And he’d say - ok. See you when you get in.

That’s it and nothing more would be said. Except maybe some chat with the other staff members that live on the same train line. Presumably you could offer to work your lunch hour to make up the time?

Unless you’re regularly late then the majority of people understand that stuff out of your control happens! Obviously if it was frequent then I assume I’d get called out on it but that’s not an issue for me and it doesn’t sound like it’s an issue for you either

You can’t help it, it’s not your problem!

I have a friend who was told by her management to expect disruption and therefore take it into consideration every day on her commute. Basically they expected her to leave an hour earlier than she needs to and turn up for work early every day so that if there ever is a delay then she’s never late for work.

I once had a boss who was difficult about this and I started keeping proof of the disruptions eg photos of departure screens, screenshots of rail apps etc.

Offering to make up the time I suggest.

it is out of your control. I would not worry about it. Take a photo of the disruption, send to team if needed and say you will be late due to trains disruption/cancellation, etc.

Not much you can do, stop worrying about it. Get to the office and just get on with your work.

If I was this concerned about a circumstance like this that was genuinely out of my control and no more than “one of those things” I’d be finding a new job.

C2C by any chance? I was also stuck on it this morning. I usually offer to make up the time but it’s pretty give and take here as we often work longer hours when required so they are not overly fussed about the odd late arrival.

This depends rather on the type of role you have. If you are responsible for delivering certain things then provided you’re not missing meetings the main person you are inconveniencing is yourself as there is work to be done.

If you do a role that requires activity to be done at specific times only, eg taking customer calls during specific hours, then that is more tricky.

Tbh, and this is key, you are leaving early enough that most times you will be early and if you get challenges I would politely point that out as you are creating a daily 30 min buffer that would catch most delays but the odd very bad delay is outside your control.

What is very frustrating is the odd person who thinks train problems are exclusively the employer’s problem (not the Op btw) - I remember having a PA who was late twice a week but didn’t see the issue because her train SHOULD mean she got in at 8.58am but frequently didn’t. She failed to see why she should get the train 15 mins earlier so she was generally on time (no childcare issues just didn’t want to) or why she should make up the missed time. You can imagine how that ended up working out for her.

I've had team members ring in from trains which have been stranded in the middle of nowhere due to mechanical problems, and others who are completely stuck when all trains are completely cancelled - bless him one of my seniors called in from 50 miles away after a landslide had stopped all trains and offered to cycle in (of course I told him to work from home instead!) That's no problem, life happens.

It becomes a problem when lateness persists and it's obvious that a colleague is relying on a train which only works if it's running exactly to time. So every time it's a minute or two late, they miss a connection which then makes them 15-20 minutes late for work. In that case, I would have to have a more serious chat about the importance of punctuality and considering an earlier train....

You seem to have 2 issues.

What is in your contract regarding how often you are to be in office? Being verbal assured you only need to be in X days really means nothing, its what is in your contract that is binding. Also- where you live has nothing to do with your company!

Regarding the train issues, what have you done the other times in the last 6 weeks when you were late? Let them know? Offer to stay back or make it up another time? What did your manager say?

As long as you let them know, keep them posted as necessary and make the time up it wouldn’t be a problem here. If it keeps happening and it’s a job that requires a physical presence at a certain time then that would be different.