Mr Al Young Dot Com

When you have your own personal blog, you have a platform to vent if something bothers you. I am going to vent about one of my pet peeves: people who are always late. I have always tried to be on time for my appointments. To me being on time, means being 10 minutes early. I always was taught that it is better to be early and wait than to have others have to wait on you. Unfortunately, others around me don’t share this philosophy. Over the years I have tried to be understanding of others being late. However, lately I have seen this tardiness problem getting out of control, and it has more far reaching effects than just my annoyance, so I decided to address it here.

In our circle of friends, there are a few couples who are always late, and we have gotten used to it, and even planned events around the fact that they will be late. We have not made a big issue of it, because they are our friends, and we accept them as they are. But, as these people become more and more late over the years, I think we may do them a disservice by condoning their actions

If you are late comer when you don’t have kids, you become really late when you have kids. I have two young kids so I know it is more difficult to get out of the house when you have kids, yet we manage to get there on time while others in similar situations do not. The problem is that kids give people an excuse to be late. They say “Yes, we are an hour late, but we have kids”, as if that was a legitimate excuse. It is not. Sure, you may be late in the beginning when you are transitioning to having kids, but after the transition period it is not a valid excuse. What is worse is when parents blame their kids for being late. “We would have been on time if Suzy didn’t throw a tantrum or Johnny had not spit up, blah, blah, blah…” If you have kids, and your family is not on time, its not the kid’s fault, it is yours. I know kids spill things just as you are leaving, dress slowly, or throw tantrums. That is why you anticipate those things, and plan additional time to get ready. If you don’t have kids, you don’t need as much time, and if you do, you plan for more. If nothing goes wrong, you will be early which you should be anyways.

Being habitually late has many negative effects on you and others around you. If you are late all the time, you personally miss out on a lot of things. If you show up for dinner when dessert is being served, you missed most of the meal. You get stuck with cold leftovers. If you show up at halftime, you miss most of a great game. If you show up for church just in time for closing announcements, what’s the point of going? We live busy lives, and our time is precious. Giving up some of our free enjoyable time because we could not be on time is time you will likely not get back. Those are missed opportunities to enjoy the company of friends, or see a great game live. It also affects your personal reputation. If you are always late, your reliablity, and commitment is questioned. If you can’t even be trusted to be on time, others will not be able to depend on you for other things.

If being late only affected you, I would not mind so much. If you miss dinner or the game, fine with me, your loss. But, being tardy is not a victim less crime. It also affects those around you. First, its a matter of etiquette, and respect. It is rude to be late. Other people have made it a priority to be on time, and we need to value their time and commitment as well. Also, being late is a distraction to the people who were there on time when you walk into the middle of a meeting or service with your entire family. It detracts from the enjoyment of the people who were on time. It may also cause resentment from others, because they feel you do not place an importance to attending the meeting or spending time with them. So, being late does not only affect you, but also everyone around you.

Not only those immediately around you, but tardiness has a far more reaching effect. As I said, parents who are always late pass on that bad habit to their kids. Soon we have a generation of kids who are lax about being on time. This leads to being late for class, and in the work place. A few minutes late to a meeting starts a ripple effect of loss productivity throughout a company. Multiply that by all the companies in the United States, and that is billions of dollars in lost productivity. You can bet that Asian and European companies are not late in starting the day. They are early, so it is no surprise that the United States is losing its competitive edge.

So, being late not only affects you. It also affects others around you, and the United States economy. Being on time is all a matter of priorities. Most people are not habitually late for work if they hope to keep their jobs. Yet, they are continually late in their personal lives. Why? They don’t place an importance to being on time. If its not work, its no big deal to be late. But, it is a big deal, not only to you, but to your friends and family. Value their time and their commitment to spending time with you, by being on time. There is no reason why you can’t be on time if you make it a priority. Remember, there is truth to the old saying that when people are kept waiting, they use the time to count up the tardy person’s faults. If you keep me waiting, that is definitely true.