for most Americans, fired also just means you've probably just become responsible for your own family's ruin. for most of our working poor, being more than 10 minutes late is a quick route to eviction and years of more crippling debt for them and whoever else might be at home with them, which could well immediately destroy other's major life plans like college for kids, moving somewhere cheaper, eldercare, even medical treatments or medication, etc.

this doesn't make driving like this less dangerous or inadvisable, of course, but the folks saying what you're saying should be aware that for a lot of folks, the certain risk of the firing is often similarly dire to the uncertain risk of driving like this.

if you knew your partner on your work health plan was going to suffer or die without continued treatment if you're ever more than 10 minutes late to work, you'd probably consider driving like this too when you overslept because you're sick or something. it only takes one little slip-up.