How do you feel about people who arrive late?

[AJerman]

Of course she should strive to do so. Some people have a less-acute sense of time, though. I know for example, I have no ability to gauge how long I've been someplace, or how long ago something happened. Did I go to the bank yesterday, or last week? Have I been waiting for this server for 10 minutes, or 30? I guess my brain just doesn't work the same as some others. I can make adjustments and use clocks and timers and alarms to help me with this, but it's harder and doesn't come naturally.

 

Not every workplace is as anal about timeclocks and punctuality. The last job I had was American-based and very strict about it, but this one is UK-based and much more relaxed. My boss is cool--heck, he doesn't even wander in until after I do generally. He knows that all the work that needs to be done will get done, and deadlines that do exist will be met, so he doesn't care about things like that. It's nice having one less thing to stress over :) Especially since I'm very nocturnal and have a lot of trouble getting-going in the morning. I do the same amount (or more) work as my colleague who gets here an hour before I do, and I answer emails/calls in the evening sometimes whereas he does not. So it doesn't equal laziness as people often assume--it's just a personality/mind-wiring difference, I guess.

That's what I love about my job right now. They don't really care about what time you come and go as long as you work your hours. Even then, there would be no way to be sure that anyone worked their hours because you enter your own hours at the end of the week, but everyone seems good for it, I know I definitely am. I get in as late as 9:30 at times, but I frequently work until 6 to 7pm, and if I ever can't be at work long enough to make my hours, I have a laptop that I can VPN in and keep working from home. Like you say, this is a great thing for me. I'm not a morning person at all, and oddly enough, I get up around 7:30 every morning, it just takes a little while to get myself going. If I ever NEED to be in early for something, I have no issue with that at all, but the overall relaxed feel is one thing I love. I think I have the same issue you mention with not being good with tracking time. Sometimes I feel like an hour has passed when it's only been 30 minutes, or the other way around.

 

That's why I think I need to work for myself and not someone else. Then I can set my own hours, haha. Not getting in early definitely doesn't mean lazy at all. I think my working 80 hours a week for two months straight with one day off the entire time pretty much demonstrated that I'm not lazy. :laugh:

[Titoist]

One of my former friends is always late... so late that now, whenever she texts me I just ignore the text message.

 

Things she has done to ###### me off concerning lateness.

- Agreed to meet me after work at bar across the street. Never showed up. I text her back and she tells me she forgot. How can you forget when it was your idea literally 10min before the end of the shift??

- She plans my girlfriends birthday, then doesn't show up.

- Next year she plans my girlfriends birthday, backs out saying that she has boyfriend issues.... then posts pictures of herself with my girlfriends friends at a nightclub.

- All of our friends have a get together at 6pm. She phones that she will be late. 8pm... she phones again that she will be late, 11pm... we are all going home... she phones saying she will be late.

- Phones asking when we can get together. I told her Sept 21 but I will not be available Sept 22. She texts me Sept 22 stating that she can go out now.

[+Warwagon MVC]

One of my former friends is always late... so late that now, whenever she texts me I just ignore the text message.

 

Things she has done to **** me off concerning lateness.

- Agreed to meet me after work at bar across the street. Never showed up. I text her back and she tells me she forgot. How can you forget when it was your idea literally 10min before the end of the shift??

- She plans my girlfriends birthday, then doesn't show up.

- Next year she plans my girlfriends birthday, backs out saying that she has boyfriend issues.... then posts pictures of herself with my girlfriends friends at a nightclub.

- All of our friends have a get together at 6pm. She phones that she will be late. 8pm... she phones again that she will be late, 11pm... we are all going home... she phones saying she will be late.

- Phones asking when we can get together. I told her Sept 21 but I will not be available Sept 22. She texts me Sept 22 stating that she can go out now.

 

She just needs to die.

[rr_dRock]

I have friends that will quite literally show up three days after they call or text.

I don't bother waiting for them, I just go around doing whatever it is I need to do that day and the next, etc, and eventually they'll show up.

I used to be a "waiter". (the people who wait for hours, and waste their whole day.)

Then I realized, **** them.

[Charisma Veteran]

One of my former friends is always late... so late that now, whenever she texts me I just ignore the text message.

 

Things she has done to ###### me off concerning lateness.

- Agreed to meet me after work at bar across the street. Never showed up. I text her back and she tells me she forgot. How can you forget when it was your idea literally 10min before the end of the shift??

- She plans my girlfriends birthday, then doesn't show up.

- Next year she plans my girlfriends birthday, backs out saying that she has boyfriend issues.... then posts pictures of herself with my girlfriends friends at a nightclub.

- All of our friends have a get together at 6pm. She phones that she will be late. 8pm... she phones again that she will be late, 11pm... we are all going home... she phones saying she will be late.

- Phones asking when we can get together. I told her Sept 21 but I will not be available Sept 22. She texts me Sept 22 stating that she can go out now.

OK, I'm definitely not that bad :laugh: I'm in the 15-30-mins-late type of range if I run late at all.

[adrynalyne]

I dont mind pals and relatives being late, but unpunctuality in a work enviroment is unprofessional, like a doctor being half an hour late for a patient with anxiety :)

Yeah, doctors tick me off with that.

 

Of course if YOU are late, they cancel your appointment.

[spaceelf]

I no longer have a cellphone.  But when I did, I'd call people if I was more than ten minutes late.  (Or late at all, if it was work.)

 

Can't really answer the poll as I'm definitely not always on time.

[compl3x]

Of course she should strive to do so. Some people have a less-acute sense of time, though. I know for example, I have no ability to gauge how long I've been someplace, or how long ago something happened. 

 

 

Surely this is remedied by a wrist watch?

[FlailingCamper]

Then I realized, **** them.

best, advice, EVER.

[The Rev]

I totally agree.  Most of the time, I can tell anyone what time I will arrive anywhere, down to the minute.  Literally.  I know how long it takes to get EVERYWHERE I go, and I almost always plan a little extra time (which makes me earlier than I'd planned sometimes) in case something goes wrong on my drive.  I can count on 2 hands the number of times i've truly been "late" for anything... probably within approximately the last 15 years.  Yeah... I'm that good.  :-p

 

A couple winters ago, I was driving in a bad snowstorm, and got stuck for over FORTY-FIVE minutes, due to my losing track of the road and getting stuck in a snowbank.  I had to wait longer than normal for the tow truck to pull me out because of the higher volume of calls for tows and such (not to mention that I was 1/2 hr from the nearest town).  Wanna know what time I got to work (which, btw, is a 40 minute drive under normal conditions)??

 

Fifteen minutes before my shift was due to start.  :-p

[FiB3R]

Not sure how I feel about people who are late, as I usually turn up at some point after them. :)

[Symal Taneous]

Bugs the hell out of me. I also make an effort to arrive early and I get stressed if for whatever reason I arrive even a few minutes late. I expect people to make the same effort. If you know you're going to be late, then at least call or text me to let me know if you're going to be late, otherwise I'm not going to wait around for very long. I used to work as a supervisor in a call centre and there were a few employees who were constantly late and I couldn't understand why they couldn't make an effort to show up on time for work, especially when it's their only source of income and they have rent and bills to pay and they put their job on the line when they arrive late.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I am always on time or early. I know how to plan accordingly and plan for the fact that ###### happens, which is why I am more often than not there early, as I do plan for ###### happening and most of the time it does not. But I always plan for it.

 

And I think that is why it actually does bother me when others are late, as I know for a fact since I never am all it takes is a little planning. If you do not feel the need to plan accordingly, I take it as you view our time together as nothing significant and not worth planning for properly.

 

So yeah, cannot say I am a fan, as I believe it does have a deeper connotation.

 

with that said, I do realize some people are just slackers. So I do let certain people slide as they are just slackers and I know it.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Last November I met someone online named Kate (she's the one i've posted pictures of in my "New me thread"). I've known her for almost a year. The 1st time I invited her and her kids over for a movie in my theater. She said she would be over in 10 mins. Was ON TIME. I have to say it was almost down right emotional having someone say they were going to arrive in 10 mins and then actually do it. All i've known before that was Dumb bitch sarah and Ben. Fast forward almost a year later, she has never once been late.

[DConnell Member]

I'm not a fan of people who are habitually late. Of course it happens to everyone once in a while, but you can allow for most things. I do have a couple interesting punctuality stories, though:

 

My ex-girlfriend Thalia was habitually late, so a few months into the relationship I had a talk with her about it, after she'd made us late to a few events. So she was coming to a family Easter party with me, and I saw that the time for the party was noon on Facebook. My cousin, who was throwing the party, had told me 1 PM but whatever. I figured she'd gotten the time mixed up or changed it and forgot to tell me. Turns out the party was actually my surprise 40th birthday party! The noon start time was for everyone else, and I was supposed to show up at one! Thalia had known, but was afraid to stall!

 

I was consistently late toward the end of my last job. I had a 40 mile commute, and the only thing that made it manageable was that my start time let me get in before rush hour really started. So the boss hires a new IT guy over me, and decides to shift my schedule an hour later, putting me right in the middle of rush hour in both directions. So I could either effectively have a 15 hour work day by leaving for work at my old time and killing time when I got there, or I could try to find an alternate way to work. A 15 hour day wasn't workable for me on a regular basis, because I get migraines. And I never did find an alternate route that took less than 2 hours, so I was always late. Needless to say it wasn't too long `til I quit that job.

 

These days I have a much better work environment, a sane commute (10 miles), and I haven't been late once! I'm having far fewer migraines, so my attendance is better as well.

[MikeChipshop Member]

I hate them.

 

I had a mate at school in the early 90's who would continuously be an hour late, to the point where we used to just pretend we were meeting an hour earlier.

 

Fast forward to the present day and i have a mate who believes he's still not late if the time he is supposed to be somewhere hasn't gone yet. So he'll be at home at 5 to 8 and due to meet us half hour away at 8, and he still doesn't consider himself late! Mind you this is the guy who turned up a full 24 hours late to a BBQ, clutching a packet of burger buns.

 

He blames his West Indian origins, i blame is bone idleness.

 

I'm the sort of person who turns up an hour early everywhere!