We are called fee-burners.. yes, to our face too.

Be careful. That’s what I was doing. They let me carry on with this for over a year, working at night. Then out of virtually nowhere they jumped on me and said it was unacceptable and I was taking advantage of the company’ largesse, etc etc.

Depends on what type of work, the situation and the people involved. In a place where people are relying on timeliness to transfer responsibility from one person to another (e.g. wait staff, factory workers, etc.,) or if there is a dependency of the absent (e.g. meeting, interview, etc.,) then it's plain rude for someone to be late. In those cases, one minute is still late. That aside, this woman deserved a break (and the tickets). She earned it by proving that the job was important by being timely for the eight years prior to this situation, and by being honest about the situation when it happened.

I agree with you for a large part, because I too work in a field where I can be flexible, but it also depends a bit on your kind of work. If you work in a shop, on a telephonic help desk with certain opening and rush hours, or as a teacher for instance, it will annoy your coworkers or customers.

Respect is a two way street. And respect can be earned in more ways than just punctuality. A boss that underpays their employees or doesn’t look at the body of work (rather than the time the employee entered the office), or doesn’t treat employees fairly has not earned respect or timeliness. It’s important to be on time for important meetings and such. It’s important to complete all your work to satisfaction. It simply isn’t important to be at a desk at 8:59 rather than 9:04. Not a single thing is gained from that other than a gag worthy sense of power that the boss gets. It’s gross and illogical.

I also forgot to add, if you can call ahead and let them know you'll be a bit late, I think that's being polite and respectful, too. After all, life does happen. (I never wrote up any of the people I was responsible for if they were late IF they called to let me know first.)

There are lots of other fields where being productive and creative is more important than coming to office 15minutes before the office hours. I know an IT company where emoloyees come at any time they want, it's just important to get their tasks done, but it's a lot about trusting the emoloyees, respecting the boss and not using this policy in a dishonest manner

Not just air force, that's pretty much business world standards. My current job is very relaxed about that sort of thing, and so is anyplace ive interned for, but i usually try to be 10 min early just so i can settle myself in snd be ready 😁 But even if you have a laid back boss and still come in early, then you just stand out that much more.