Tardiness is one of my biggest pet peeves, and the past two days have been driving me crazy. Parent-Teacher Conferences started this week, and on Thursday, I had eight scheduled meetings.
Per our contract, each conference is supposed to be 15 minutes long, but I gave myself a 20-minute window to make sure I had time to get my materials together between meetings.
My first meeting of the day was scheduled for 7:40 a.m., but the parents didn’t show up until 7:50. Then they were frustrated when we only had 10 minutes to talk since class starts at 8.
The school day went smoothly, and as I prepared for the after-school meetings, the first set of parents arrived right on time at 1:10, perfect start! The next meeting was scheduled for 1:30, but those parents didn’t show up until 1:35, which pushed things closer to the next appointment. Luckily, the 1:50 meeting was on time. But then, the parents for my 2:10 and 2:30 meetings both showed up 10 minutes late!
While it didn’t add much extra time to my workday—I only left about 10 minutes late—it was still frustrating. Growing up, I was always taught that being punctual is a sign of respect. And if I was ever running late, I was expected to notify the person I was meeting.
The parents who showed up late had already picked up their kids when school was dismissed, so it was a bit annoying that they were still late to a meeting an hour later. The family that was a few minutes late for the 1:30 meeting particularly bothered me because the meeting was only 20 minutes after the time of school finishing.
There have been a few times when lateness really stood out to me, but one instance in particular comes to mind. My wife and I were traveling in Taiwan and had plans to meet family for dinner. We arrived on time, as did her uncle and aunt, and we were all waiting for a few more family members, another set of aunts, uncles, and cousins. They ended up arriving an hour late, but acted like nothing was wrong. They greeted everyone casually, with no apologies or even an explanation for why they were late.
As this was all occurring it felt like my face was turning red my blood pressure was coming I felt like my brain was going to explode not because they're late that was frustrating but the disregard for the fact that we have been sitting there waiting for them for so long not to offer an explanation not even to say sorry was just the most frustrating thing ever to me.
I’m curious, how do you all feel about punctuality? Does it bother you when people are consistently late, or are you more relaxed about it?
I hate being late.
I often arrive 1 hour earlier, because I wanted to account for possible delays.
Likewise, I feel disrespected, if anyone makes me wait.
If we agree on 10:00, you can expect me to be there @ 9:55 and by 10:05, I'll call you and ask what's up.
Punctuality is important here in Germany. Or at least it was. For me it still is.
I’m with you. I often arrive places early too. I get that being late happens sometimes, especially here in Southern California. Depending on how far we're traveling, an accident can easily add two hours to the commute.
If that happens, I still expect some kind of heads-up. Not 15 minutes after you're late, but beforehand.
It’s a cultural thing and a learned one. I will say that because I was one!
I was one who would show up late to things and not offer explanations. I would certainly apologize for it but it was a routine occurrence. I got it from my mom.
After I married my wife she set me straight about the whole thing. I was late on her a few times and it bothered her a lot. Nowadays I am early for things, for the most part and it does feel a lot better.
It’s a lesson that people learn and if it bothers them enough that something that is late ends on time they will get the hint that starting on time will give them the full time to use. Sadly though many people don’t get that and don’t care enough to change.
Yeah, I’d agree it’s definitely a cultural or learned thing. In the end, a lot of people just don’t care enough to change. That’s where we have the choice, deciding whether we want to stick around people who don’t respect our time. Some people are fine with others being late, and some aren’t.
In the workplace, though, I just have to deal with it. If someone’s not happy getting there full time, they either need to fix it or keep being unhappy, it’s up to them.
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