[Mason Hatcher]

I was taught if you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late. Stuck with me

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

So, how long do you sit alone in a meeting after the scheduled time before you leave?

The general rule of thumb from my college days was waiting 5 minutes for a lecturer, 10 minutes for an assistant professor, or 15 minutes for a full professor to show before considering the class canceled for the day.

Seriously though, we used to have weekly department meetings at my former place of employ. I would be sitting in the reserved conference room du jour alone most weeks for three minutes after the scheduled start time, and then pick up my department walkie talkie and ask everyone if the meeting room was changed and nobody told me. Did I mention that I was IT, the chief cook, bottle washer, and babysitter?????

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

Can it wait until tomorrow?

.....I knew this comment was coming. Good one.

[wrickem]

Alway on time here, but…

When I make work appointments or plans with friends, I use times not normally used.

Instead of 9:30 I’ll set it for 9:27 or 9:43 or something like that.

9 out of 10 times, that’s exactly when people show up since it becomes like a fun challenge for them to be there on time. It seriously works

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by wrickem

Alway on time here, but…

When I make work appointments or plans with friends, I use times not normally used.

Instead of 9:30 I’ll set it for 9:27 or 9:43 or something like that.

9 out of 10 times, that’s exactly when people show up since it becomes like a fun challenge for them to be there on time. It seriously works

Sounds fun. I'll have to try that.

[3.0L]

I’ve long made it a point to be punctual. If I’m meeting someone for
lunch or going to their house, I aim for 5 minutes early or so. If its
a doctor appointment (we have many these days), I shoot for 15 minutes
early.

We go out to lunch quite a bit and several of the restaurants we frequent
have specific opening times. With the help of the Nav in our car I’ve
gotten real good at arriving about 2 minutes before they open.

[dreamingat30fps]

While I'm always on time for appointments, meetings, events etc. I'm one of those who was rarely on time for work when I worked 9-5.

In my defense... pretty much no one was on time at the places I worked... mostly creative types... the type who make tiktoks (maybe instagram back then) showing them at work doing everything but working. Also the type of work I was doing was not time dependant, no one was waiting on me. We would also take long lunches.

I remember at one place it got so bad with people being late that they sent out an email telling everyone something along the lines of we don't mind if you're a little late but please try to get here at least before 11am.

I worked at some other place where people would routinely come in around lunch time. Honestly that's one of the only places where I was probably there before everyone else. Anyways they decided to implement a system where we had to clock in from our work computers. Of course everyone immediately setup a remote desktop connection and would just clock in from home.

Thankfully I haven't had to show up to work in the morning for a while now. I'm not a morning person, never have been, probably never will be. I work mostly at night now.

[M_Six]

I had a house painter come out yesterday to give me a quote. I knew when he pulled into the driveway that I'd be hiring him. He was on time *to the second.* I saw the clock turn to 5:00 exactly as he arrived. Sure, it might have been a bit of luck that he hit it that close, but he wasn't late, and that means a lot to me.

[3.0L]

My dad had a (well deserved) habit of coming to work late at his store
during his last few years. He’d stroll into the shop and say:

“Since I got here late, may I leave early to make up for it?”

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

With all these punctual forum members chiming in, I'm waiting for the first post from someone who is habitually late. You know who you are. Jump in and share. We promise to be nice.

Does my sister-in-law count? She's habitually an hour late, so we always tell her an hour early.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

Does my sister-in-law count? She's habitually an hour late, so we always tell her an hour early.

Back when I was 18 I had a girlfriend who was late for everything. She just didn't care. We had an apartment together and just one car, my '68 Bug. I worked an 8 to 5 job and mostly took the car. She worked at KFC part time and worked at night and I would drop her off and pick her up.

On occasion she wanted the car during the day and would drive me to work and pick me up. She was ALWAYS late to pick me up, usually around an hour late. No matter how mad I got at her she still came late. I think she left to get me when I got out of work, at 5pm, and as I said, it took about an hour to get to work.

I finally wised up and stopped letting her have the car during the day since she couldn't get there on time. So rude of her; I just worked a full 8 hour shift and then I have to wait an hour for her.

[mdf]

My parents were chronically late. It's one of my lasting memories of childhood, my parents being late to everything.

One year for youth soccer, I made it to the starting squad at striker. I can remember that first day of practice, standing in a big circle playing the name game, sprint drills, dribbling drills, penalty kicks against the goalie squad. And when I got pulled aside into the striker group, I was f'ing stoked. The practice field was too far away to be bikeable, so I depended on my parents to drive me. My dad would drop me off and my mom would pick me up. She was so late picking me up that I would be the absolute last person on the playing field, I would stand at the fence watching as the sun set and the cars driving by started to drive by with their lights on, and I would play a game with myself counting down how many cars still didn't have their lights on yet. I was so late so often arriving for practice and games that one day when we arrived for practice, the coach took my father and me aside and said if I was late again to practice that I would be dropped from the starting group. The next practice, we would have been on time but on the way there, a dog ran out into the road in front of the car and my dad ran over it. The dog was still alive but mortally wounded and my dad wouldn't leave the dog alone on the side of the road like that. So we stayed there as it suffered and as he asked every pedestrian that came by if they knew whose dog this was. The dog died and we gave up and left for practice and my dad explained to the coach why we were late. The coach told me I was cut from the starting group on the spot. And I got moved to half/full and I never got back as starter.

I hated being late, I hated being late, I hated being late to birthday parties to friends to movies, but as a child there wasn't anything I could do about it. So as an adult, I am chronically early. It's one of the first things that really changed when I grew up and when I got my own car. I was f'ing on time.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by mdf

My parents were chronically late. It's one of my lasting memories of childhood, my parents being late to everything.

One year for youth soccer, I made it to the starting squad at striker. I can remember that first day of practice, standing in a big circle playing the name game, sprint drills, dribbling drills, penalty kicks against the goalie squad. And when I got pulled aside into the striker group, I was f'ing stoked. The practice field was too far away to be bikeable, so I depended on my parents to drive me. My dad would drop me off and my mom would pick me up. She was so late picking me up that I would be the absolute last person on the playing field, I would stand at the fence watching as the sun set and the cars driving by started to drive by with their lights on, and I would play a game with myself counting down how many cars still didn't have their lights on yet. I was so late so often arriving for practice and games that one day when we arrived for practice, the coach took my father and me aside and said if I was late again to practice that I would be dropped from the starting group. The next practice, we would have been on time but on the way there, a dog ran out into the road in front of the car and my dad ran over it. The dog was still alive but mortally wounded and my dad wouldn't leave the dog alone on the side of the road like that. So we stayed there as it suffered and as he asked every pedestrian that came by if they knew whose dog this was. The dog died and we gave up and left for practice and my dad explained to the coach why we were late. The coach told me I was cut from the starting group on the spot. And I got moved to half/full and I never got back as starter.

I hated being late, I hated being late, I hated being late to birthday parties to friends to movies, but as a child there wasn't anything I could do about it. So as an adult, I am chronically early. It's one of the first things that really changed when I grew up and when I got my own car. I was f'ing on time.

That really sucks!

[RickFLM4]

I always arrive a little early. My wife consistently arrives by 5-15 minutes late (an improvement over the past 25 years!) to everything. When things work out that averages to on time.

Her family and most of our friends in Miami are “culturally late” to everything. I do my best not to be bothered too much by it and they do their best to text when running more than a few minutes late.

[cmyx6go]

Funny story... Last week I had an appointment at an attorney's office to sign some documents. I google the location and see it should take me about an hour to get there. I leave my office at 10:30 for a noon appointment. I actually made it there in 35 minutes. So I pull into the rear of the lot, make a few calls and then check my emails figuring I have about 1/2 to spare before I go inside. An appointment reminder pops up saying 11:00 am Now I'm freaked, I'm walking in at 11:15 for an 11:00 appointment! How the hell did I screw that up and think it was for noon?

Anyone that knows me, knows I am always on time. I'll call my hair salon if I'm stuck in traffic to say I may be late and they laugh, betting I'll still be on time. But this was someone that doesn't know how anal I am. I'm anxiety stricken that they will think how rude and disrespectful I am showing up 15 minutes late without a call. I apologized like crazy and told them what happened. They we're cool but I'm still embarrassed.

[M-technik-3]

I am the type that's there 5 minutes prior unless it's out of my control. At work early and ready to work vs the type that shows up late then goes to the restroom for ten minutes and then to coffee machine.

Have too many of them at my place of employment, drives me nuts.

[erickonphoenix]

Growing up in a military household everything was on a schedule so now I'm wired like that. 15 minute early rule always applies.

However, a few years back I got stranded on the freeway due to a fatality accident and that made me miss an important meeting. I was pretty perturbed about it, but then my boss reminded me that someone was having a worse day.

Being on time can be a luxury.

[Llarry]

Like many of the posters above, I am always early.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Back when I was 18 I had a girlfriend who was late for everything.

Hopefully she wasn't late for EVERYTHING while you were dating!!!!!

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by mdf

My parents were chronically late. It's one of my lasting memories of childhood, my parents being late to everything.

One year for youth soccer, I made it to the starting squad at striker. I can remember that first day of practice, standing in a big circle playing the name game, sprint drills, dribbling drills, penalty kicks against the goalie squad. And when I got pulled aside into the striker group, I was f'ing stoked. The practice field was too far away to be bikeable, so I depended on my parents to drive me. My dad would drop me off and my mom would pick me up. She was so late picking me up that I would be the absolute last person on the playing field, I would stand at the fence watching as the sun set and the cars driving by started to drive by with their lights on, and I would play a game with myself counting down how many cars still didn't have their lights on yet. I was so late so often arriving for practice and games that one day when we arrived for practice, the coach took my father and me aside and said if I was late again to practice that I would be dropped from the starting group. The next practice, we would have been on time but on the way there, a dog ran out into the road in front of the car and my dad ran over it. The dog was still alive but mortally wounded and my dad wouldn't leave the dog alone on the side of the road like that. So we stayed there as it suffered and as he asked every pedestrian that came by if they knew whose dog this was. The dog died and we gave up and left for practice and my dad explained to the coach why we were late. The coach told me I was cut from the starting group on the spot. And I got moved to half/full and I never got back as starter.

I hated being late, I hated being late, I hated being late to birthday parties to friends to movies, but as a child there wasn't anything I could do about it. So as an adult, I am chronically early. It's one of the first things that really changed when I grew up and when I got my own car. I was f'ing on time.

How horrible that must have been for you.

I believe that our upbringing shapes us into to who we are today. But, we have choices to mimic what our parents did or realize that behavior is not for us and choose to manage our own lives differently. Good for you for not following in your parent's footsteps regarding punctuality.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by cmyx6go

....Anyone that knows me, knows I am always on time. I'll call my hair salon if I'm stuck in traffic to say I may be late and they laugh, betting I'll still be on time.

Exactly! I hike with a group each Wednesday morning and I pick up another hiker and carpool with him. The traffic between our houses is tough in the early morning and even 5 minutes out the door difference for me can mean a 20 difference in how long it takes to get to his house. If I even think I might be late I call him. I simply cannot stand being late. He always laughs and says, "It's okay, you will probably be here on time anyway."

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

Hopefully she wasn't late for EVERYTHING while you were dating!!!!!

Now that's funny! Ironic that you didn't put a period at the end of your post. Ha Ha, made you look.