busyMost people are late occasionally. Some people are late chronically. It is usually due to carelessness and/or lack of organizational skills. So the first things you want to check are:
* Does the person realize that being late causes difficulties for self and others?
* Does the person CARE about those difficulties?
* Have they taken basic steps to avoid lateness, such as having accurate timepieces (if feasible), making schedules, and studying organizational techniques?
The article raises an interesting issue: ability to estimate time required to complete a task. Some people are really good at this. Others are really not. To some extent, this can be compensated by timing oneself and memorizing or recording how long it takes to do things, rather than trying to imagine how long it will take. (Frex, I have timed myself writing, so I know that it takes me -- very roughly -- an hour to produce a thousand words. Sometimes considerably more or less, but that's a good ballpark estimate.) This ability is something that can be measured objectively by giving someone tasks and asking them to estimate the completion time. It should be measured with both familiar and unfamiliar tasks, because skill at estimation may differ for those categories.
Closely related to this, not explictly mentioned in the article, but implied in the fellow's description of his experiences, is the ability to get tasks done -- or lack thereof. Some people are excellent at staying on track and dealing with unforseen complications. Others are not. To some extent, this can be compensated by padding the deadline. It doesn't always work, but for most people, it reduces the frequency and duration of lateness. Like estimation, task progress is a thing that can be measured.
We'll set aside the social issues of demanding more from people than they can possibly accomplish, or expecting them to get places faster than is safe or possible, which can cause lateness. We'll also skip folks whose presence bends the spacetime continuum and/or causes timepieces to malfunction, thus making them often late (or early). Those are separate challenges outside this discussion of mental processing of time management.
It's one thing to blame people for being careless. It's quite another to demand that they perform well in an area where they have little innate talent or ability to acquire skill. The latter is a disability -- a pretty bad one, in our culture. So while most people who are frequently late probably do that out of indifference or ignorance, some probably do it out of disability. And the appropriate responses are different: indifferent people need to learn empathy (or how to emulate it), ignorant people need to learn time-management skills, and disabled people may need an assistant or some other accommodation for a potentially life-wrecking problem that can't simply be trained away.
Chance of people actually bothering to test for this? Or trying to ameliorate the various reasons for lateness? Probably almost zero, despite the fact that lateness is something people complain about frequently both in personal and work contexts. Because then they might have to do something other than cast blame or make exuses, and that would be work and likely cost money. I bet they'd rather just keep being late or bitching at late people.
August 28 2013, 04:21:34 UTC 7 years ago
But when gets my goat is when I'm teased about being late to a rehearsal by people who either work regular 9-5 jobs or who are retired. Often I have no control over having to come in a little late due to a client appointment that was too tightly scheduled or a client who is running late which causes me to be late to arrive at the rehearsal. What they don't understand is that most of my clients also work regular jobs and so most of my appointments have to be in the evenings. And if the client runs late, so do I. I take the teasing for awhile and then I take that individual aside and explain.
But I am *never* late for dress rehearsals or performances, even if that means losing money by not meeting clients. They also don't understand what a sacrifice that is; all they see is "gosh, she's self-employed, she gets to do whatever she wants, whenever she wants." In other words, they wouldn't make it as entrepreneurs.
Thoughts
August 28 2013, 18:40:17 UTC 7 years ago
I have little patience for that.
>> They also don't understand what a sacrifice that is; all they see is "gosh, she's self-employed, she gets to do whatever she wants, whenever she wants." <<
I have that problem with service calls. People don't seem to understand that if I get up early, my brain doesn't kick on and I lose a whole day of work, not just the hour they're fixing something in the house. Just because I'm home doesn't necessarily mean I'm available. So we usually give people a time window of acceptable hours, unless it's an emergency.
Re: Thoughts
August 28 2013, 18:50:07 UTC 7 years ago
I just had someone call me and I missed the call due to changing over laundry. She said, "I'm free about 6pm and would like to meet with you. See you tonight." Erm, NO! I'm not at your beck and call; I'm a business woman with as busy a schedule as you have.
*fume*
But regarding the friends from choir, I can and will find time to have chat with them about this and help them to understand it better. And I owe them that; to do otherwise would be passive aggressive and I loathe that even more.
Re: Thoughts
August 28 2013, 18:55:55 UTC 7 years ago