Woody Allen once said: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Funny, but true! Although an employee’s experience and education are invaluable to a company, employers are increasingly looking at other factors — called work ethics — to describe their outstanding workers. And showing up, which includes being at work on time, coming to work almost every day, and giving appropriate notice when it’s not possible to be there, is high on the list of positive work ethics.

The behaviors and attitudes that employees bring to the workplace — cooperation, appearance, respect, productivity, and attendance — are essential for moving their career on an upward trajectory. And attendance is as important as any of them. Here’s why:

It Has a Significant Effect on the Workplace

When you aren’t there, others have to fill in for you. If you’re taking a slated vacation day, your supervisor and team will have planned for it. However, taking off without notice can leave a gaping hole in the production schedule — especially if you were working on a project that is due shortly. One of your co-workers, who might not be as familiar with the work, will be asked to take over. As a result, customer service could suffer, and your absence might create bad feelings among those workers who do practice good work ethics.

It’s Costly for Your Employer

When a business is forced to disrupt its schedule because of your absence, it directly affects their bottom line. Each employee plays a pivotal role in the operation, and when a company must hire temporary workers to fill in for an absentee or retrain new workers to replace terminated ones, it is very costly. Inefficiencies, loss of customers, and poor productivity have a devastating effect on earnings and profits.

It Becomes Difficult to Practice Other Work Ethics

Employees who can’t see the effect of poor attendance on their workplace probably are lacking at least some of the other work ethics. A chronically absent or tardy worker is often missing other key components — discipline, reliability, responsibility, and dependability — that contribute to a well-functioning workplace. Missing workers can’t be good team players, and their frequent absence comes across as a lack of respect and cooperation.

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