Comments on: Consequences of a less than punctual life

By: Sarah in CA

Sarah in CA — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:01:00 +0000

I was applying for a job at the local community college which included an application, a typing certificate and something else I don’t remember.

I had sent in everything early… only to discover the day before the deadline that I had missed something (maybe references) so I called and asked if I could fax or email them in and they said no, once the application was received (even if it was early and I would STILL be early), that was it, no exceptions.

I was so um, pissed off that I never applied to another job there and never will.

By: greenstrawberries

greenstrawberries — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 10:39:38 +0000

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.

By: Jerome

Jerome — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:23:47 +0000

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.

By: Chronically Tardy

Chronically Tardy — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:12:55 +0000

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! :)

By: Matty

Matty — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 05:47:20 +0000

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….

By: heather

heather — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:39:49 +0000

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 :)

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:44:19 +0000

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. :-(

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:23:11 +0000

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.

By: loomis

loomis — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:31:15 +0000

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.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:57:09 +0000

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.