

No, you are not ‘running late’ – you are rude and selfish - codeka
http://www.leadingcompany.com.au/managing-me/no-you-are-not-running-late-%E2%80%93-you-are-rude-and-selfish/201208162110

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jrockway
If you care that much, do something about it. Fire people that show up late.
Refuse to patronize businesses that don't work to your schedule. Unfriend
friends that show up to dinner at 8:45 instead of 7:58. It's really very
simple.

As you sit alone in your apartment admiring your superior sense of right and
wrong, you might consider the fact that while clocks can measure and display
the time to the second, people can't. And your friends and colleagues are
people, not atomic clocks.

Perhaps the unreasonable selfish person is _you_.

~~~
martswite
"Refuse to patronize businesses that don't work to your schedule."

I don't think this is a valid point. When you arrange an appointment, meeting
or lunch with another party/parties/business for a specific time and duration
then surely that's no longer "your schedule" but rather "our schedule" and it
is the responsibility of both parties to honor that schedule, it's just
polite.

I may be reading your comment wrong but I find the tone to be a little
uncalled for, sneering almost. Do you really think a person wanting people
around him to be timely means they have a "superior sense or right and wrong"?

And if so why? Genuinely interested.

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huhtenberg
> _Why do people, invited for a dinner party at 7.30pm, think it’s cool to
> arrive at 8.30pm? It’s rude._

This varies by culture. From where I'm from, it's arriving at 7:30 that is
considered rude, with 20-30 minutes being late being optimal and 1 hour is
being more or less acceptable, but kinda pushing it.

~~~
schmrz
That's interesting and hard to understand at the same time. In which country
do you live in?

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jim_kaiser
I'm always late for everything and I don't see what the fuss is about. FYI I'm
a software engineer, in India. In software, there is a concept of a buffer
period, which people learn to add to the estimates, because inevitably, things
gets delayed. Maybe you need to recognize when to do this with people.

I don't know if you're some big shot CEO or someone for whom a few minutes is
a loss in millions. I don't believe in living life being so worried about my
time or others time. The only waste of time is doing a job and not hacking on
something great. Here's a nice poem for you to sit back, take a deep breath
and read.

LEISURE

What is the life, full of care we have no time to stand and stare. no time to
stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see,
when woods we pass, where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see,
in broad daylight, stream full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn
at beauty's glance, and watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait
till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this if, full
of care, we have no time to stand and stare.

By William Henry Davies.

~~~
santaragolabs
It's a cultural difference. I'm sure that what happens in general French
office culture is totally not acceptable in India. Example: in a lot of French
companies each morning co-workers tend to greet each other by shaking hands
(when it's male on male) or by giving the females two kisses on the cheek
(when it's male on female or two females).

The same holds for how time and appointments are viewed in Germany, the
Netherlands etc; different from other places.

Note; I haven't spend much time working in France but I did experienced it
first-hand there; the described behavior might just not be as prevalent
nowadays as I'm assuming it is though.

~~~
enqk
It's the normal way to greet yes. And appointment time culture is different in
germany and in france, where it's a little bit more relaxed.

------
santaragolabs
I haven't noticed this as strongly as the author of the article. But there are
definitely cultural factors at play.

I'm Dutch and I work a lot in Germany; everyone tends to come in right on time
whether it's a physical meeting or a conference call. Either that or they got
hit by a bus. That's in general also the way it works in the Netherlands.

With the UK and the USA it's different; not as bad as in the article but they
definitely aren't as punctual as the Germans and the Dutch.

Maybe it's because of the lack of wrist watches? I feel like I'm of a dying
breed anyway since I still wear one all the time. Especially in the USA
everyone just uses their phones for that.

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OSButler
It appears to be more of a cultural thing, as I've noticed that here in North
America times appear to be treated relative, whereas in Europe it was treated
like a deadline in most cases.

If you're late, whatever was scheduled to happen that time would most likely
be postponed or cancelled by then, unless it was a group meeting.

Plus, I personally find it also insulting, as the person arriving late clearly
doesn't consider that the other person(s) put an effort into being on time as
well and otherwise could've worked/stayed at home a while longer just the
same.

------
adrianhoward
One thing to bear in mind is that "late" is fairly culturally dependant. The
standard deviation for "on time" is very different in the US, France, Brazil,
etc.

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BobWarfield
Never met a recruiter who was as considerate of my time as I was of theirs.
Interesting this one has the opposite problem.

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greenyoda
This is the third time this article has been posted to HN. See prior
discussions here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1689274>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5028939>

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GotAnyMegadeth
Or maybe they are depressed. Best thing to do with someone who is depressed?
Call them rude and selfish, of course.

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mandytolliver
Mobile phones can help: If you always know exactly _where_ the other person is
(not when the claim they'll get to the meeting), you can time your travel to
match theirs. We really need an smartphone app for that, leveraging GPS.

~~~
gte910h
It exists. It's called Glympse. <http://www.glympse.com/>

Works pretty well in my limited experience with it.

------
diminoten
Yeah I can be, and that's one of my flaws. I'm only human, but I hope my good
qualities outweigh my bad enough for the writer of this article to remain my
dear and valued friend.

------
mandytolliver
Is it really getting _worse_? People have always been late.

And the post mixes business with pleasure: A staff meeting and a party are
quite different things.

------
Vivtek
Living in Puerto Rico would kill this man.

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swombat
tl;dr: rant about people who are ok to be late all the time.

