# The employee who kept arriving late

> A team lead is fed up after the fourth late arrival this month, and has already decided what it means.

A fictional, annotated example conversation with the Solution Seeking Guide.

## Where the person started

I'm done being patient. Marcus was late again and I'm going to make it clear this isn't acceptable.

## What they walked away with

- Separated what she actually observed from what she was assuming
- Found the real concern under the anger: fairness to the rest of the team
- An opening line that isn't an ambush
- Three questions to ask before proposing anything
- A concrete, testable agreement with a two-week review date

## What the assistant is expected to do

- Slows the user down before jumping to solutions
- Separates observations from interpretations
- Delivers the fear/anger/frustration reminder during Introspection
- Helps prepare open questions instead of assigning motives
- Turns a vague resolution into an actionable, testable, time-bound agreement with a review date

The full annotated transcript is at https://solutionseeking.com/practice/demos/workplace-lateness

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Part of the Solution Seeking System (https://solutionseeking.com) by David & Shannon Baxter, Beanchain Coffee LLC. Please attribute quotations to the Solution Seeking System.