The Importance of Timeliness

Damn, I'm dumb. I kept thinking you were misspelling timelines. I thought, "Fuck yeah! Timelines are real important to me."

Timeliness on the other hand, I can take it or leave it.

I like being on time for things, just so I can get them over with. Other's timeliness, or lack thereof, don't really bother me that much, unless it's an emergency.

 

Yep I'm "that guy" too.
I go to very few meetings at work. I've been at my present place long enough to know that I don't want to go to most meetings because they are a waste of my time, and those I work with don't want me at their meetings unless it's essential.
The meeting that I do attend every week is the one I am in charge of.
Nobody has been late to that one for a long time. I'm the reason why.

 

I live my life on Island Time. I show up when I can and don't even wear a watch, I also don't need coffee or Red Bull to stay awake... I hated having to catch a bus in the morning in college for 2 years, and will never be in that position again.

I'm going to finish one thing before moving onto the next thing, and sometimes the first one takes longer than I thought it would.

Yet, I am at more events and volunteer more than other people who are 'always busy'. And I don't like it when events start right at 5pm or some other time. If I want to ride my bike to it, it could take 45 minutes or 60 minutes to get there, so plan some time to hang out before it starts if you want everyone there by 5pm by saying to show up between 4:30 and 5:00.

 

It depends really. I used to be pretty bad at it, I think I've gotten better. If it's for work, I'm good, I'm always 5-15 minutes early. Personal engagements are kind of hit or miss. If it's a social gathering, I'm usually "fashionably late", I don't like to be the first one till arrive. But that's like 5-15 minutes after the official start of things. With meeting up times, it depends on the why. If we're going shopping or some other non-timeline event, I won't stress if I'm running a free minutes late. If we're going to a movie, or something that has to be on time, I'll make sure to plan ahead to arrive a little early.

People running a few minutes behind to meet me doesn't usually bother me unless they're throwing off my schedule. Though it is nice if people throw in the "sorry I'm a little late" as a courtesy.

 

I used to be absolutely atrocious with being on time for anything. I was always at least 10 minutes late to any event, regardless of importance.

I'm getting much better about it these days, but I still have slip-up moments.

 

I am punctual and I find it disrespectful when people are late.

I had a boss that was *never* on time. She would make meetings and never be on time. She'd show up late to the office, after the meeting was to have started, and fuck around until it was time for her to start the meeting. She would do this with client meetings as well. She had a high opinion of herself.

That aside, there is a difference between a party invite and a dinner party invite. A dinner party invite implies food prep, so get your ass to the table on time. A party invite doesn't require punctuality, the party is going all night.

 

I'm generally 5 min early, everywhere. I'm also one of those assholes that will start a 9am meeting at 9:00.

My time is important, so is everyone elses.

 

You can score extra-super bonus A-hole points if you lock the door at 0900 and make latecomers knock or just miss the meeting entirely.

 

Put me firmly in the "like to turn up early" camp. I ranted at the parents of the children in my Saturday cricket team after everyone except me turned up after the game start time - doesn't help when you are fielding first and only having one child. Worse - it was first thing Saturday morning, close to home and even though I'd been out drinking until the wee hours of the morning, I was still early. Get out of bed you lazy @#$%!

I get stressed if we are late leaving home - my wife has slightly less care for arriving on time. At least she has learned that it annoys me!

 

I went to Catholic school for 8 years, and they really hammered in the "If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. If you're late, you lose."

I try to be early to anything of importance, but will show up "fashionably late" (though I get anxiety if it's more than like, 15 minutes) to things like happy hour where it's expected for people to be late.

 

I've had several managers do that. Works for me.

I can annoy my employers in any number of ways. I'm not sure why I'd add tardiness to the mix. It's pretty much accepted that if I'm late, some client has a disaster and that's a nice reputation to have.

 

This is more of a rant, but maybe y'all know people like this.

One of our current neighbors used to be a friend. He's a batchelor, who a few years ago burned up his oven and never replaced it. We used to frequently invite him over for dinner, usually on Sundays when we cook a traditional large Sunday meal. We even went so far as to give some veggies extra cook time since he has bad (no) teeth.

We gave a general time as to when we'd be serving, and we were usually pretty close. Sometimes he would be early. Sometimes about on time. Many times he'd be late, really late. Other times he wouldn't show up at all.

My wife even gave him a "to go" plate a few times; I never made that offer.

He never grasped that his excuses such as "I got tied up on the phone with...." and "I took a nap and overslept." were telling us the dinner invite wasn't important to him.

 

I agree with this. My feelings on parties is more along the line of, no more than 1 hour late from the start of the party. Generally, as parties (again not dinner parties) go, there is an ebb and flow to them.

 

I hate people being late for a fixed start time event.

Just last week I went to a project meeting set for 3pm, and by 3:10 a key member of the team hadn't shown up. I pointed out that six senior staff waiting meant that the lost time was already costly, so we started.

By 3:40 we were done, and getting up. The missing guy came in, and pulled rank to have the whole meeting again.

This happens almost daily.

It drives me batshit crazy.