I’ve experienced this first hand, the younger they are the less attuned to being on time or even showing up they are, especially mid-twenties age group. It’s not just laziness or irresponsibility per se, these are college graduates in some instances. Oh, I had to go get a haircut this morning, sorry. Or, oh, I just wanted to go to the beach for a few days, sorry. Then they turn up afterwards still expecting to have a job, genuinely surprised that there’s some sort of problem over disappearing for days with no word from them whatsoever.
All the hipster programmers want to work whenever they please as well. Come in at 10-11 and stay to 8-9. They get about 3 hours of face time with experienced coders and wonder why their latest “I got it from a blog” doesn’t work.
Although I’m sure it’s a lot more prevalent in younger workers, not showing up isn’t an attribute of just the young. I work with somebody in her sixties who overplays the “I feel too sick to come to work” card. In the first 2 months this year, she missed time from work on 20 days, claiming illness. It was even worse last fall. Amusingly enough, after her supervisor wrote her up for excessive absenteeism, her health improved dramatically. She’s only missed time on 1 day in the last 6 weeks.