There is no harm in leaving your work until the last minute but submitting it late should be avoided, research shows.

Scientists studied the psychological impact of when work was completed and if being early, on time, or late mattered.

Almost 7,000 people were enrolled in a total of 18 experiments and were asked to rate the quality of various pieces of work.

All the items were identical - but the people assessing them were told they were submitted either late, at deadline or early.

The scientists said an essay submitted late is considered to be as bad as a piece of work that had missed the word count and was objectively inferior. But the study found no link between how late something was submitted, and how badly it was viewed.

Despite late work being objectively identical and of the same level as the early or on time alternatives, the study found that it is human nature to view late work as inherently worse.

Prof Sam Maglio, the study's author and a professor of marketing in the department of management at the University of Toronto, said: "Everyone saw the exact same art contest entry, school submission or business proposal, but they couldn't help but use their knowledge of when it came in to guide their evaluation of how good it was."

An essay sent for marking one hour late was viewed as being just as poor as one sent a week late, for example.

The scientists also found that being a model worker and having an immaculate reputation was no protection, with just one late blip enough for people to mark down your work.

The only thing that did save a person's late work from being admonished was if the reason for the tardiness was outside the control of the person doing the job.

For example, a person doing their work late because of jury duty would be forgiven, whereas someone who got their schedule confused or was on holiday would not.

"Communication around deadlines is vital," says Prof Maglio. "If it's a hard, and not a soft, deadline, you as the manager should let your employees know.

"If the reason why you missed the deadline was beyond your control, you as the employee should let your manager know. That seems to be one of the few instances in which people cut you a break."

"Results indicate that missing deadlines negatively influences evaluations of the worker and significantly diminishes the perceived quality of submitted work through a process of reductions in competence-related trust," the authors write in their study.

"This effect makes people less willing to work with late submitters in the future, and it is moderated by the perceived importance of the deadline and the reason for lateness.

"In contrast, submitting work early confers no benefit."

The study is published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.