- When it comes to office timeliness there's a generational divide with recent research showing younger workers think it's fine to be 10 minutes late, even considering it on time, while baby boomers feel differently.
Chances are, how you feel about running 10 minutes late at work is a good indicator of how old you are. While it may be a sign of disrespect among baby boomers, Gen Zers don’t see the big deal.
In fact, according to 2024 research, the youngest generation of workers believes 10 minutes late is still right on time.
The online meeting company Meeting Canary asked over 1,000 British adults about their attitudes toward punctuality, and almost half of those ages 16 to 26 said that being between five and 10 minutes late is just as good as being punctual.
However, tolerance for tardiness decreased with age.
While around 40% of millennials said they are forgiving of colleagues running 10 minutes behind schedule, this dropped to just 26% for Generation X and 20% for baby boomers.
Adding to that, those with baby boomer bosses should probably avoid being late at all, even by just a minute, because in their eyes, “If you arrive after the agreed time at all then you are late,” the report cautioned.
A staggering 70% of boomers surveyed said they have zero tolerance for any level of tardiness.
Why the punctuality discrepancy?
It’s not surprising that Gen Zers lack a strict sense of timing. They entered the workforce from the comforts of their home during the pandemic, where it was common courtesy to wait longer for people to dial into a meeting in case they were experiencing tech issues.
In reality, many of them have probably never experienced the embarrassment of walking late into a meeting and being stared at by their entire team, who are begrudgingly waiting for them to start—and perhaps they never will.
Research has consistently shown that pandemic-era hires want to hold on to the flexibility they grew accustomed to during that time: Not only will they walk out of jobs that don’t let them have some say over when and where they work, but they would even rather work multiple jobs than one with traditional rigid hours, to better accommodate their out-of-work life.
“Gen Z is more likely than other generations to value and prioritize work-life balance and mental health above workplace stresses—and that includes rushing around to be on time for a meeting,” Meeting Canary’s founder, Laura van Beers, told Fortune.
“Where working from home has blurred the lines in what good meeting etiquette is for the younger generations, older office workers still have a more established, traditional view.”
It's why just as Gen Zers have had to learn how to appropriately dress for meetings, now they’re going to need to brush up on their timekeeping—or risk getting in the bad books of their boss at work.
Tardiness may not be entirely Gen Z’s fault, but it’s getting them a bad rep
While lax timing will no doubt be welcome for many workers—especially those with children, neurodiversity, or mental health struggles—bosses have already been complaining about how hard young workers are to manage.
Earlier this year, the Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster grumbled over her Gen Zers coworkers not showing up on the job until 10:30 a.m. Meanwhile, an MIT interviewer blasted the generation for always “being late.”
Plus, research shows that Gen Z’s flexibility with timing transcends the meeting room: They are more likely to miss deadlines than any other generation.
On average, Gen Z workers miss almost a quarter of their deadlines each week, compared to 6% for baby boomers and 10% for Gen X.
At the same time, young workers spend the most time on unnecessary tasks and pulling overtime.
On the bright side: It suggests that they’re not keeping you waiting because they don’t respect your time—but because they’re probably struggling with time management, which will improve with experience.
As Nick South, managing director at Boston Consulting Group, pointed out, tardiness isn’t a Gen Z–specific trait, it’s a learning curve that every young worker goes through at the start of their career.
“When all of us entered the workforce, it took quite a long time to learn, we wasted time being ineffective,” he told Bloomberg. “As you go on, you learn when to focus and where you can take a shortcut.”
A version of this story was originally published on Fortune.com on June 24, 2024.
