I got written up at work for being 2 hours early

Okay, so I didn’t technically get written up specifically for being 2 hours early, but at the end of the day, I was 2 hours early for my regular schedule time and got a write up for being late.

TIA if you make it to the end of my venting.

For context, the company I work for is a somewhat local business so the rules are much more relaxed than they would be at a large corporation. We don’t have a “point system” for performance and attendance and no one seems to really uphold most of the rules we have anyways. However, we just hired a new manager at my office this past month and I’m assuming he’s trying to bring this type of rigidity to our company as well.

Back in February of this year, I actually switched from full-time to part-time because I was experiencing severe burnout and couldn’t show up to work less than an hour late to save my life. From that point, my schedule has been Monday through Friday, 12:00pm - 5:00pm. The literal CEO of our company told me that if there were days I wanted/could show up early, then that was fine and there was no issue with it. The way she phrased it absolutely meant that I didn’t need to let anyone know I was coming early and could just show up early on any day.

Over the past month, I have finally reached the point where I am beginning to feel more healed from the burnout I was going through. I have actually been showing up 30-90 minutes early for my shifts several times a week. This has received positive reactions from several of my coworkers that are pleasantly surprised at my early arrival because they all know I’m more likely to be late.

Someday last week, I had an appointment at 8 in the morning and I told my direct manager that because of it, I would probably be able to come into work around 9. My manager and I are very close in age and have a chill friendship-like work relationship so she doesn’t mind things like this at all.

As these things usually go for me, I didn’t end up having time to get ready before my appointment so I took my things with me and got ready in my car after my appointment. I figured that since I was already coming into work early regardless, it didn’t matter if I got there later than when I originally thought I would be able to. We didn’t have any specific deadlines or meetings that were time sensitive on this day, it would have been just another regular day in the office.

The new manager at my company ended up giving me a write-up for being an hour late because I came in at 10 instead of 9. I understand that I came in later than they were expecting me, but my schedule does not change if I come in early. Had I known that “word of mouth” was going to be taken as a literal schedule change, then I never would’ve mentioned the possibility of being able to come in early.

What makes all of this the most frustrating is that, out of every single day this year, I haven’t showed up earlier than 10:30am, until that day. This was the earliest time of day I had been at work all year long and I somehow got a write up for it.

This situation makes me feel incredibly set-back and honestly, unmotivated. I was actually really proud of myself for getting to work 2 hours early. To me, it felt like a huge step forward in getting back to where I was at pre-burnout. But to get a write up on THAT day out of ALL days?

I’ve decided that I will no longer be telling anyone if there’s a possibility for me to show up earlier than my scheduled time because I don’t want to get penalized for it. If anyone ever asks, I will be there BY my scheduled time, even if I know I’ll be able to be there early.

At the very most, I could understand the new manager telling me that policies have changed and “word of mouth” is as equally “set in stone” as our official schedule is and going forward, I would have to adhere to whatever time I tell them I would be in by.

Am I seeing this totally backwards? I feel like I shouldn’t have been written up. If you made it this far, let me know what your thoughts/experiences are.