Your interviewer is curious to learn more about your attendance record. How you respond to this question will likely provide clues as to where you are on the scale from always being early, arriving right on time, to consistently running behind schedule. Your answer can also offer clues to your work-life balance, your sense of teamwork, your work ethic, and how likely you are to burn out of the job versus finding job satisfaction.

A person who has stronger time management skills is more likely to anticipate delays and plan ahead for them and is consistently on time or early to work. Someone who is consistently on time or early to work is more of a team player and would be more prone to alert their team of the possibility of running late. Whereas someone who is habitually late likely has poor time management skills and responds to delays and contingencies more reactively rather than proactively. And, not learning from their mistakes, they probably race to work with the hopes they make it in on time without calling attention to themselves.