The Culture of Lateness...
As I sit on the brink of having three 8am classes to teach next quarter, I have to explore this late culture that has developed over the years. I know that today more than ever people have more responsibilities, more commitments, just more things to do in general. However, that is no excuse.
In what world is it OK to arrive anywhere one hour or more late? What makes you think that I have nothing else to do with my time than to sit here and wait on someone to get here? These are classes, appointments, meetings that YOU have agreed to. It's not like the times just snuck up on you. You agreed to take this class, set up this appointment, scheduled this meeting and commitments need to be scheduled accordingly.
Now I do understand things come up. People have families and kids that can't always be scheduled. However, I'm not talking about those late people. Those late people have actual justifications and many of them will contact the person they are meeting. I'm talking about the people who are consistently oversleeping, always stuck in traffic, always late for no real reason.
Fix it. Get up earlier. Leave earlier. Set several alarm clocks. Do whatever is necessary. I'm up late. I have things to do. But I got here. Because while you may not intend for your lateness to be perceived as rude, disrespectful, inconsiderate, self-serving, self-absorbed, it can come off that way.
Remember. To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is......
3 comments:
I see your frustration, but it would be hypercritical of me to turn against my fellow “late arrivers”. I have a standing 9am meeting at work that I am 15 mins late to at lease twice a week. It has gotten so bad that I plan to be late to most events either because I know others will be late or because I have figured out about what time the “important” part starts, i.e. main act, sermon, etc.
Though it use to upset me I have come to except that people are on time when and only when they deem it important. Free before 10pm, Prize to the 1st 100 people through the door, black Friday, etc! Maybe you should make it important to be on time for your class, pop quizzes at the beginning of class with NO make ups or something like that.
Great write up! I hope you were able to release some frustration if nothing else.
I have to say I am quite familiar with your tardiness. You know it's a disease most of your lovely LS's suffer from. LOL!
As far as school goes, girl, doesn't matter what I do at the beginning of class, people are going to be late regardless. And even still, late is late. What does it matter what I do at the beginning? It honestly isn't just one class or just class in general. Overall I'm just tired of waiting. Waiting for people to arrive at parties. Waiting for people for meetings. Waiting for the person who invited me somewhere or made the plans. It's a bad habit.
You know me. I get irritated and have to let it all out.
Thats exactly how I used to feel last year when I was teaching an 8am class. It would frustrate me to no end to start the class with 10 of 32 students knowing that another 15 (I hardly ever had a full class except the week of a test or the week before exams) would traipse, stroll, sashay into the class over the next 15-20 minutes (of a 45min class). This drove me bananas. Oneday I sat corss-legged on the desk infront of the class and quietly goofed around on my ipod until 8:15. I told them that I hated the disruption when someone walked into class and it felt like the class never started before 8:15 anyway. I did this for two days and you should have seen the evil eyes the on-timers threw the late-comers. I then announced that if anyone wasn't in class by 8:01am they needn't bother coming unless they had a freakin' good excuse that better involve blood and/or hospitals. I'm not saying I started getting 100% on-comers but the situation definitely improved. Grrrrr.
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