If someone’s always late, ask why before you write them up. Sometimes it’s a bus schedule, not an attitude.

Lateness reads as disrespect, which is why the first response is usually a punishment rather than a question. A surprising amount of it turns out to be a bus that comes at the wrong time, a sibling to drop off, a shift that ends too close. Punishing a logistics problem does not solve it, and it teaches the person that you will not ask.

Ask once, privately, before anything else happens. If the cause is structural, see whether the start can move or they can take the later part. If it really is carelessness, you will find that out too, and you can say so fairly.