Coming in late for work can be considered grounds for dismissal, but it turns out that arriving too early can also be considered a serious problem by employers. A Spanish woman found this out the hard way when she was let go after repeatedly ignoring warnings that she was arriving too early.

The young woman, who worked for a delivery company based in Alicante, was in the habit of arriving at her workplace between 6:45 and 7:00 a.m., even though her contract stipulated that she was supposed to start at 7:30 a.m. This meant that she started her shift earlier than her coworkers, which displeased her manager. She was first reprimanded for her habit in 2023, but she continued to arrive early, ignoring the thinly veiled threats from management.

Earlier this year, her boss decided to fire her for “serious misconduct,” arguing that by arriving so early, his employee had no tasks to perform and was therefore making no contribution to the company. The employee didn’t see things that way, though, and she challenged the decision in an Alicante social court.

To the young woman’s surprise, the Court sided with her employer, arguing that, by repeatedly ignoring the management’s warnings, she had a negative impact on the employee-employer relationship.

” The worker’s conduct had an impact on the relationship of trust and loyalty, which is considerably affected, because despite the company’s warnings […] the complainant insisted on entering prematurely,” the Court’s ruling read. “Ultimately“, it is considered that the behaviors attributed to the worker […] are of sufficient gravity and importance to constitute very serious misconduct of disloyalty, breach of trust and disobedience, which justify the termination of the employment relationship.”

Moral of the story? Try to be on time, not early for work.