Australian workers start the year off at their most punctual, being the earliest to work they will be in January. However, this trend quickly falls apart according to Deputy’s Late to Work Report, which saw February as the month when Aussies were the most late to work.

On average, 43 per cent of Aussie hourly-paid workers arrived late to at least one shift in the time between March 2018 and 2019.

“Shift workers or rostered workers currently represent two-thirds of the employed globally,” said Deputy marketing officer Jennifer Shambroom.

“One could argue they represent the backbone of society.”

This trend seems to get worse the younger the employee is, as males born to Generation Z are the most likely employees to be late to work, with 1.5 per cent of workers in this generation starting a shift late.

Conversely, female baby boomers were the least likely to be late, with only 0.5 per cent of scheduled shifts started late.

According to Shambroom, the global hourly workforce is currently spread out across four generations; Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y (or Millennials), and Generation Z – which will soon overtake Millennials as the majority of employed.

While one or two late shifts can seem like no big deal, over time these lost hours add up significantly and can impact a businesses profitability, as well as the staff morale as other employees are forced to cover for late co-workers.

Much of this can be traced back to the always-on culture we find ourselves within, with the constant access to screens, information, and communication impacting our ability to turn off after work.

“We are in danger of being wholly consumed by the tools meant to simplify our lives, and there is no thicker tentacle of tech wrapped around our necks than that of our work,” Deputy’s global president Steven Power said.

“In a culture of 24/7 connectivity, the very notion of off hours seems like a quaint relic of the distant past. In a recent survey, 57 per cent of employees bemoaned the loss of the family dinner hour, sacrificed to bosses who expect responses at any hour.

“A company that disregards work-life balance puts their employees at risk of chronic stress, workplace burnout, depression and insomnia. Of course these things often lead to an individual clocking in late for work.”

The Late to Work report analysed over 28 million time-sheets, and measured the habits of over 400,000 individual workers for the year between March 2018 and March 2019.