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SITE: The Uptighterati hate lateness: are we wrong? 

 

HABITUAL lateness comes with a HIGH PRICE
👎🏽 Missed opportunities. Not just worst-case scenarios like missing-the-interview-for-your-dream-job. It’s the whole range of lost opportunities by not being a responsible professional (adult)
👎🏽 Damage to your reputation. A study by Jobs.ie showed that 46% of employees feel resentful toward their persistently late co-workers. And around 1/3 of managers have dismissed an employee for chronic lateness

👎🏽 Psychological and Physical harm. Lateness causes stress, anxiety, guilt & shame (even in normal on-timers).
EXP: being late for an important meeting because of backed-up traffic (did you leave early enough?)

“Lateness is an outrageous expression of arrogance,” says Anthony Warren, at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business.

More people prefer messiness, loud noises, even bad smells – TO lateness. In a recent study from Randstad USA, 54% of respondents said others’ poor time management skills drove them nuts, second only to office gossip (60%).

ACoAs – some reasons
☁︎ To see if others will totally accept me in spite of being an insensitive brat
☁︎ I can’t decide what to wear since I don’t know who I’m supposed to be (for work, for a date, for this event….)
☁︎ Procrastinating, since I don’t really want to go (even tho’ I said I would)
☁︎ I’m so-o-o busy (over-doer) having to take care of everything & everybody else, instead of myself (that would be selfish, no?)
☁︎ Perfectionism – I have to prepare just right or it won’t be (I won’t be) acceptable 
☁︎ I’m putting off dealing with an angry / crazy person I’m afraid of  (parent, boss, mate…. )
☁︎ I can’t decide which option to pick – I don’t really know what I prefer / want / need – so I’m terrified of making a mistake

Comedian Mike Birbiglia quipped “What late people don’t understand about on-time people is that we hate them.”
◆ To paraphrase Tolstoy, All early people are alike, but every late person is late in his own way

Samantha Grossman  – TYPES (2015)
🦠 The Deny-er: The person who walks in, hugs you hello & acts like their lateness just never happened
🦠 Eleventh-Hour Over-compensator: sends you a completely overdramatic paragraphs-long text as explanation
EXP: “OMG I’m gonna be late bcuz a UNICORN was crossing the street so OBVIOUSLY I had to follow it but then my foot hurt so I had to stop and see why my foot hurt & then RYAN GOSLING walked by but it was actually a homeless person LOL so yeah I’ll be there in 45 mins maybe!”

🦠 The Empty Chair: who’s late to an event where you’re graciously saving them a seat. Everybody gives you the stink eye, but you’re not the monster
🦠 The Genetic Latie: who blames their personality for why they’re always late
🦠 The Hangry-Maker: who is so late that you say ‘screw it’ & start eating brunch alone
🦠 The Harried Commuter: who blames public transit or traffic every time they’re late. (Sometimes, yes. But every time? No. Build in extra time.)

🦠 The Interruptor: who comes into the movie right as it’s starting, distracting you from the important opening scenes and/or literally crawling over you
🦠 The Infuriatingly Relaxed Colleague: who rolls into the meeting 10 minutes late, holding a coffee that they clearly could have forgone in order to be on time
🦠 The Manic Pixie Procrastinator: who shows up, breathless, their whimsical flowy skirt fluttering in their wake, thinking their lateness is adorable & bohemian

🦠 The Over-scheduler: who was doing some other fun thing right before & you know because they Instagrammed it. BUSTED.
🦠 The Over-sharer: who always blames their lateness on their significant other, typically involves an overly detailed story you’re forced to listen to
🦠 The Pre-Liar: who texts you “almost there!” when you’re confident they’ve in fact just gotten out of the shower
🦠 The Post-Liar: who says “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, the subway was delayed!” when you live in a town without a subway
🦠 The Spatially Incompetent: who just can’t seem to figure out how long it takes to get from their apartment to Point B, even though they’ve lived there for three years.

NEXT: Lates, Part 2