Lateness Policy
CREATED BY ZOO CO

Lateness Policy

Contents

Contents

INTRODUCTION

At Zoo Co we understand that, as a company working with people who have various access needs at its core, lateness may be inevitable.

Lateness can be a result of ‘time blindness’ which is common amongst neurodiverse people.

Lateness can also be a result of the ways in which ableist society disadvantages the disabled community.

Examples include making train announcements verbally, which disadvantages deaf people who rely on written announcements, or only having one wheelchair space on a bus, which disadvantages wheelchair users as they travel.

 

About this policy

  • Zoo Co accepts that lateness and desire to work or professionalism are not the same thing.

  • We understand that a person can be dedicated to their work/a project and care about being involved, yet still be late.

  • We would like to create a working environment in which being late does not cause someone undue stress, and where we do not take on the role of patronising, parenting or punishing people for lateness.

  • The reason we make a point of specifying our attitude to lateness is because we do not want the time employees spend at Zoo Co to be spent worrying about their lateness/ how others may respond, if it should occur.

  • We would rather employees experience less stress and anxiety at work and therefore are able to complete better work. We advocate for a system of generosity, kindness and understanding.

  • This policy works in conjunction with our Flexible Working Hours
    policy for office staff.

How a lateness policy works for Zoo Co

  • We trust our staff and trust that they will make up working time missed by being late, at their earliest convenience. For example, if someone is 10 minutes late, they may work for 10 extra minutes during lunch/ at the end of the day.

    Occasionally the time may not be asked to be made up, or it may not be practical to do so. We work with a principle of good faith that everyone works hard and passionately within their jobs at Zoo Co, with quality of work being the aim rather than quantity of time spent working. Where possible though, each employee’s aim should be to work their contracted hours within a month/project.

  • This approach to lateness should be extended to our rehearsals as well as our office team and should be communicated to producers, directors and stage management teams on projects.

    This means that if an artist contacts a member of staff to forewarn of lateness, they will be responded to with a kind, practical reply, offering support with travel if needed/appropriate (for example, a cheap Uber/ travel planning), offer for a brief update on what’s happened in the room when they arrive from an available team member, and ensuring they are met with kindness on arrival and can step straight into working.

  • In order to be able to keep a level of organisation on projects and similar, employees of Zoo Co should be encouraged to forewarn/communicate of potential lateness to each other/a specific team member, should it arise.

  • Again, lateness should be judged ‘in good faith’ and people should not have to communicate their reasons for being late (unless they would like to).

  • Should persistent lateness of a particular team member be disrupting an activity, the best action to take would be a private chat about ways in which Zoo Co might be able to help the team member manage their time more effectively.

Hoped outcomes for Zoo Co’s lateness policy

In return, we hope that this policy facilitates honest, transparent and proactive
communication from someone regarding lateness, where they take responsibility for their own work, and communicate to their team members effectively, in order to not allow lateness to get in the way of the work of others/ cause others 
undue stress.

Resources

Below, you will find other resources to support you in making your event/venue more accessible for learning disabled people. These include examples of:

  • Visual Stories
Example

    This can help physically disabled people to plan; their visit to your event, accessible entrances and exits into your venue, how they can interact with activities taking place, and what facilities are available to them. These documents can include information on transport links, start, interval and finishing times, ticket purchasing and validating on arrival, venue facilities, venue auditoriums and breakout spaces, and artists and staff members that the viewer may expect to meet on their visit. You can offer these as documents with pictures in (as seen here) and/or as a video version (that shows a recording of the journey from various transport links to your event destination, details of your venue layout, entrance/exit routes and its facilities, and your staff members/artists).

     

    Visit Page

  • Lateness Policy

    This is a policy created to recognise that lateness can be a result of the ways in which ableist society disadvantages the deaf, disabled and neurodiverse community. With this in mind, this policy can be put in place at your workplace to ensure your workplace is less ableist. This includes applying a ‘latecomers welcome at all times’ attitude to your event.

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  • Access Icons Guide

    These can be used when marketing your event. These icons aim to make accessible performances/venues easily recognisable to those who require it. Events happening across London Borough of Culture – This is Croydon should be using these icons whenever they have one of the access provisions listed provided at/for their event.

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  • Models of Disability

    These descriptions of the different models of disability can help inform (or refresh) an understanding of disability terminology and approaches.

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  • Role breakdown
of an access
Coordinator

    This page is an example of the different roles that an Access Coordinator working in a theatre company could cover. These roles should regularly be assessed and updated to consider new learning, understanding and awareness.

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  • Relaxed Performance Announcement Script template

    This script can be adapted for different audiences and performances.

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