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I’ve encountered 
my fair share of punctuality stories–tales of extreme punishments & horrid ultimatums. I’ve even lived through a few of my own–like the time I was ten minutes late to high school volleyball practice & the coach just smiled and told me to take a seat in the bleachers while the rest of the team ran “suicide sprints” as punishment. There was nothing quite like that; I could just feel all my meager social collateral evaporating.
But the most egregious story of all came from someone I recently met, who told me that a 
habitually tardy actor on the set of a film once begged him to break his fingers because he needed a good–and verifiable–excuse for being late, or else the director would fire him. My friend tried to talk him out of it, but the actor wouldn’t relent, and my friend found himself breaking this guy’s fingers: two, to be safe. The actor kept his job…But who knows to what lengths he’ll go next time! Elsewhere, Ray Emery, goalie for the Ottawa Senators, is being “fined substantially” after arriving four (4!) minutes late to practice: “Emery could be docked up to one-187th of his $2.75 million salary, roughly $14,700.” Have you ever been punished for tardiness in an extremely profound, draconian, or just plain avant-garde way?
Comments (22)
Comment
I belong to several bike clubs, which have varying policies on ride start times.
One club has a sort of laissez-faire attitude about starting times, which means that a 9:00 ride starts around 9:15.
The other club is a little more anal, meaning that the 9:00 ride leaves at approximately 9:00:01 and if you are not ready, tough. If you miss the start you either ride alone, go home, or chase like a dog. And then you learn the lesson.
posted by fixedegar on 1-31-2008 at 6:35 am
No, but all of these punishments are greatly deserved! I cannot stand to be late and hate waiting for someone else when they are late even more.
Maybe we need universal punishments for chronically late people! Aaack!
posted by Karen on 1-31-2008 at 6:39 am
I was always pretty strict about being on time–I grew up with parents who had to be to the destination 15-30 minutes early. I was not quite so anal, but I still liked to be on time.
Then I had the same roommates for 3 years and learned to wait, as they were perpetually slow at getting ready to leave. Now I’m a little more patient with lateness, but only just a little.
I’m with Karen on the punishments for chronically late individuals!
posted by nutmeag on 1-31-2008 at 7:29 am
I think its the ultimate in rude to be late, its also very egotistical to think that everyone else in the world has less of a life than you, and should therefore wait for you to show up whenever.
With that said, I don’t believe in punishing people for this (I still think positive reinforcement works better), but if someone leaves me waiting, I’ll let them know politely that next time I’d appreciate a call, and if you’re going to be more than 15 mins late, forget it.
posted by Scott on 1-31-2008 at 7:29 am
I was habitually late to my restaurant job but my managers weren’t very creative. They would just scream at me and threaten punishment. (I was head cook so there wasn’t too much chance of them firing me.)
Now I work at an ad agency and the closest thing to punishment for tardiness is missing the daily walk to 7-11 for coffee and scratch-off tickets. (The 7-11 train waits for no one.)
posted by Marta on 1-31-2008 at 7:34 am
so, trying to stay anon. here, but have a friend who is CONSTANTLY LATE. and i don’t mean 10-15 mins., i’m talking anywhere from 45 mins. to an hour. and she has no concept of how rude she is. she actually showed up one time 45 mins. late saying that she was talking to neighbor and “didn’t want to be rude.” WHAAAA???!!!! she clearly has no idea how rude she is to her friends. we’ve tried to talk to her about it and she starts getting all weepy and says she’ll try to be better which lasts about 2 weeks and then we’re back to square one. now, we just tell her that we’re meeting a half an hour before we actually are…
posted by ??? on 1-31-2008 at 7:42 am
I was almost suspended in junior high for habitual tardiness — 12 instances in one semester, in fact. This was the official school policy, but they had trouble applying it to me, their “best and brightest”, for simply not being able to find things in my locker. So they gave me the ultimatum and threat, and I was never late to class again. However, I often came to class without my book or papers, because my locker hadn’t gotten any cleaner.
(It turns out that that kind of disorganization, rather than acting out in class, is a key symptom of ADHD in females. They missed a great chance to diagnose me.)
posted by lleachie on 1-31-2008 at 7:43 am
I agree with Karen and Nutmeag. I loathe tardiness and am generally everywhere 15 minutes early. I’ve come to terms with the fact that this isn’t common (boo!) so also exercise the trick Capt. Anonymous up there talks about - if you want a Usually 45 Minutes Late person there on time, tell them an hour earlier than the other guests! Usually works like a charm.
Also useful for get togethers- I’ll tell everyone 6, knowing only one or two people will get there on time, and they can help me set up and we’ll have extra hang out time while everyone else trickles in!
posted by Sarah on 1-31-2008 at 8:51 am
i’m gonna jump on the “i don’t like late people” bandwagon. i’m always early to everywhere, except for the occasional unforseen catastrophic traffic accident preventing me from reaching my destination. waiting for people makes me angry, but what really gets me are the people at work who arrive 15-30 minutes late and consider it that they arrived on time. that’s just dishonest.
posted by tami on 1-31-2008 at 9:23 am
When I was in my twenties I tended to be ‘that’ person - the one who was always at least an hour late to everything. I had a friend (twenty years later he is still my BFF) I picked up to go to an art festival for the day. He was so mad when he got in the car, he was practically humming. I had no valid excuse for being late- just the usual ’something came up, I got distracted, I thought I’d have enough time’ scenario as always.
I remember getting a little huffy at the fact that he was mad at me (!?) and finally told him, if he was too mad, maybe we shouldn’t hang for the day. To my utter shock, he agreed, got out of the car and went back into the house.
I was mad, tried complaining to my other BFF about it, and got double-teamed when she launched into me about my chronic lateness.
Since then I have endeavored to be timely for my friends. I’m not always successful, but if I’m late it’s generally by five minutes, not an hour or more as in the ancient past.
Anyone who has an eternally late friend may want to try some tough love.
(Sign me, Not Always Better Late Than Never)
posted by Li'l Miss Late No More on 1-31-2008 at 10:16 am
I was an hour late to work one day this week. The power had gone out during the night so my alarm was reset and didn’t go off. A legit excuse, I thought. I called in late the second I woke up. By the time I got to work, there were 10 batteries lined up in a neat row on my desk. Nobody took credit for it, I got the message, and everyone had a good laugh. I went home and promptly put a battery in my alarm clock. That tardyness will NOT occur again.
posted by Jenny on 1-31-2008 at 10:19 am
I am a habitualy late person myself and I know it as do most of my friends but never 30-45 mins! That is just inexcusably rude. I’m usualy 5-10 mins late so I always say I’ll be there 5ish, that way as long as I’m not more than 10 mins late I’m OK.
posted by Lisa H on 1-31-2008 at 10:31 am
I was born two weeks late and have been making up for it my entire life.
In high school, our marching band director would always say “To be early is to be on time; to be on time is to be late; to be late is to be left.”
If you were late, you were SOL in many many ways. For rehearsal? Too bad - door is locked. For a performance? Even more too bad - your ass moves down to LAST CHAIR. Aiee.
posted by Rachel on 1-31-2008 at 11:18 am
Band taught me in High School the hard way to be early for everything. I’m now married to a 15-30 minute late man and it drives me batty.
If its his friends we are meeting I’m okay with being late as they have come to accept his lateness but if its my friends I tell him we are leaving about 30 minutes before we need to walk out the door. And it does work.
I’ve also turned the tables on him a couple times when he wanted to get somewhere at a certain time and I think he is starting to get the idea. These days if we are late its only by about 5-10 minutes and usually because of traffic (since we live a good 1/2 hour away from every one else).
I have a co-worker that is always late - and to the point she is walking in the door at 10am after everyone else has been there since before 8am. And when she walks in she’s on her phone talking to a client to make us think she has been working the whole time.
Well it finally caught up with her - Friday is her last day - she is taking some time to find herself before getting a new job. I hope its something that will allow her to be late all the time.
posted by Beth on 1-31-2008 at 11:57 am
I used to have a supervisor (call him JB) who held a staff meeting every morning, but was never on time to the meeting. This left 10 or so people cooling their heels waiting for JB to show up. I suggested to him that this was unprofessional and was costing the company money, but he ignored me.
I fixed the problem by randomly inviting various people further up the management chain to the staff meetings. JB would arrive at the meeting to find that a VP of the company had been waiting for him to show up. The tardiness cleared up right away since he never knew who would be in the meeting.
posted by loomis on 1-31-2008 at 12:31 pm
My boyfriend and his brothers have a phrase that applies to his father, “Hurry Up and Wait”. When he’s trying to get us all to go someplace it’s all rush rush rush. But then the second we’re ready to leave he’s no where to be found. It’s a fun game.
posted by Jessica on 1-31-2008 at 2:23 pm
The solution for me is having a Nintendo DS at all times. If someone is running late, I can pull that out for some Sudoku or Tetris until they get there.
Movie times are my pet peeve though…I will only meet people at the theater so I can at least grab some good seats because my friends will show up AFTER previews. I love the previews. :-(
posted by Lisa on 1-31-2008 at 2:44 pm
i don’t know about you guys, but coming in late to class and having the whole room suddenly go quiet while everyone turns and stares at you is scary enough. It’s still not enough to get me to wake up early though :)
posted by heather on 1-31-2008 at 9:39 pm
As a university professor, I made it a policy to have anyone arriving to my class, sing. Happy Birthday and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star would not cut it. You had to take center stage up-front and sing, until I said you could stop. I announced this policy first day of classes; the students would snicker. Then, usually within the first week, someone would arrive and try to sneak in late. Caught, they’d complain and hem and haw, and this while all eyes were on them. Finally they sing something, I’d yell, “louder please” and would finally cut them off. By the second week, there’s be some people arrive, peak in the class, see that I had begun my lecture and they’d quietly shut my door and disappear. They decided they’d rather get the absent marked down than sing. The fun came at the end of the semester. You see my policy also only allowed for three absences or final grades get lowered. So, eventually some poor soul who had spent the entire semester dodging my cruel ways, would come face to face with my policy. Say and sing - or ditch and watch their grade go from an A to a B…. and I’d watch them at the door… tick…tock…
it was always a fun time in Prof G’s class….
posted by Matty on 1-31-2008 at 11:47 pm
Yikes! You guys are scary. I’m among the chronically late (not the ridiculously chronically late — I’m only of the 5-15 minutes late variety), and for those of us who have this problem, it really isn’t about thinking the whole world should wait on us. We really aren’t trying to be rude. Personally, I just have no concept of time (I’m an ADD female, too, also not diagnosed until adulthood) — even if I find I’m running early, I’ll think I have time to do just one more thing and I’ll end up making myself late! I think flexibility is far more important than rigid punctuality. I used to manage a business and I could handle a bit of tardiness here and there, but it killed me when I had the clock-watchers who would perpetually give me a 30 minute countdown (every 5 minutes) to their scheduled departure time and always be completely unwilling to budge on that time, even by a few minutes. I think Americans in general are way too obsessive about living by a clock (other countries are, too, but not all of them), and I dislike this immensely. So, yes, I might consistently be a bit late, but it’s not because I expect people to wait on me, and I’m always happy to stick around a bit longer to make up for it! :)
posted by Chronically Tardy on 2-3-2008 at 10:12 pm
When I read about the man who break his finger just to keep his job, I cannot understand what was in his mind at that time…Since I was at school until now, I got late rarely. Maybe, it’s because my parents teach me a lot about discipline…But, sometimes I got late too. When I was at college, my lecturer forbode me to join the final test because I was late. I woke up late, because I sleep very late for studied. I think that’s the worst punishment I ever got because my lateness.
posted by Jerome on 2-7-2008 at 9:23 am
I’m really bad about being 5-10 min. late. I find that I’m either really early, or a few minutes late. My mother says that I have an “artist’s sense of time.” If someone is depending on me, then I will be on time or early (like if I’m supposed to pick someone up, or do something for someone)- I really hate disappointing people. Also, if something comes up and I’ll be more than about 10 min. late, I call and let the person know. I try really hard to be on time, I’m just not very good at it.
posted by greenstrawberries on 2-20-2008 at 4:39 am