I see nothing wrong if you make up the time lost at the end of the day. If you come to work 30 minutes late, stay a half an hour at the end of the day and it is not theft”
Wrong. Unless your boss is OK with that, he or she may be relying upon you to be at work at the exact specified time. It might be of no help to him for you to give him an extra HOUR for that half hour, if what he needed was coverage in the office or job at that precise time. I work in a place where each employee is vital to the smooth functioning of the workplace. If one is late, it puts a real tircha on the rest of the staff, who really don’t care if that person “makes up the time,” because she was needed to be there when she was supposed to be there, or else needed to find a replacement for herself. People who are habitually late come off as people who do not give a hang for anyone else’s but their own needs. Everyone runs into an occasional problem and can be late sometime. But if it is a regular habit, then you need to get up earlier and get out with enough time to get to wherever on time.