Punctuality Challenged
Read more articles on Life's Nuances and Let Me Share With You.November 26, 2006
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
November 26, 2006
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
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Some people are punctuality-challenged. Just like the internal body clocks that I wrote about a couple of months ago, it appears that this won’t change. Like so many other “conditions”, the symptoms may temporarily improve, but the underlying causes will never go away…
I, for one, have this condition, as well as many plausible excuses for why I’m often a few minutes late. They are all perfectly good explanations, too.
The best one is that I’m trying to do too much. In fact, I feel as if I’ve already put in half a day before getting to work. Any mother can tell you that. Add to that the taking care of pets, straightening up the house, making sure everything needed is in the car, eating breakfast and getting oneself ready to face the world, it’s rough to be anywhere before 10 AM. But my real problem is that I go onto the computer in the morning, to see what’s been happening in the world and to check my free lance sites. Also, on many days I wake up with an idea for an article, so I have to get that down and out. It’s always a struggle, but somehow I manage to do it all and still get to work only 5 minutes late. I therefore have no qualms staying later than I’m paid for most of the time. In this case, I consider myself making the best use of my waking hours!
Long ago, I realized that most doctors and dentists will keep patients waiting ridiculously long amounts of time, so I get there a little late, as well. I find myself waiting nonetheless, but actually it’s not quite as bad, and there have even been times when I’ve been seen right away. Occasionally, non-conformity decreases the occasions when others think nothing of wasting your time…
When invited to small gatherings, it usually works out that I get there about 10 minutes late. In my opinion, this is perfect because it gives the host or hostess time to handle any small emergency or provides a little breathing room. I don’t like it when guests arrive early to my house, because I’m usually frantic while trying to get dressed, finish the food, or both. Since I don’t want to do that to others, I consider lateness-in this case-to be consideration!
Quite often, religious services, meetings, and entertainment start about 3-5 minutes after the scheduled times, but these are venues I make it to slightly before the appointed time. This is possibly because, like everyone else, I want a decent seat. It’s funny how selfishness can make a person move a little faster! The only aspect of my life that I’m regularly 10-15 minutes early for is my dance class or when teaching. To get the most out of any workout, there’s no such thing as too much warm-up. (Plus, the simple fact is that it’s someplace where I really want to be.)
In my humble opinion, it’s not when you do something, it’s how you do it and what the result is. Now, I’m not suggesting an employee mosey into work whenever it suits him, but I’ve seen plenty of early birds who brag about getting there at the crack of dawn, but they haven’t necessarily spent that time on the latest project. I’d rather have an employee who may be a few minutes late, but works through part of lunch or stays late to finish what’s important, than someone who stops mid project and waltzes out the door because the clock says it’s quitting time. Fortunately for me, I’ve had employers who were always generous in this regard, so it was easy to be generous back. Sometimes stinginess with time begets more stinginess.
So, know that punctuality-challenged folks really aren’t trying to annoy the rest of the world. We’re just on our own schedule, and hopefully, you’ll eventually be pleased with our results-even though we may show up just a wee bit later than you’d like.
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