Totally agree that tardy people tend to be “faffers” too which is incredibly annoying too.
Just get on with whatever it is you’re meant to be doing!
“It isn’t about you.” That’s actually the problem! They’re not prioritising the person they’re meant to be meeting, they’re prioritising their own needs but to a ridiculous and unnecessary degree!
“They just aren’t very organised” then they should address this!
“can’t find their shoes” this type of thing ON OCCASION happens to everyone BUT if you regularly don’t know where your shoes/coat/whatever are you really need to be tidier/better organised.
“haven’t ironed their shirt” but they’ll have KNOWN way ahead of time that the shirt they wanted to wear needed ironing - bloody well do it the night before or build in the time to do it on the day without it causing you to be late. Or be like me and iron nothing!
“or want to shower and need to wait for the water to heat up” if that’s how your shower works you already KNEW this and need to build in to the schedule time for water to heat up
“the babysitter was late etc.” ON OCCASION this is fine but it’s not on as a regular occurrence - get a more reliable babysitter!
These are not difficult things to do, it’s very much part of being an adult and certainly as a parent I would expect a person to be organised, sensible and responsible.
And it’s also very annoying that perpetually tardy people don’t communicate! At a certain point you KNOW you’re going to be late. Text/message/call the person you’re meeting and APOLOGISE because you are in the wrong! And let them know how late you’re likely to be and give them the option to reschedule or cancel without going in a strop if they do!
All the tardy people bemoaning “it takes so much energy it’s exhausting” to be on time for friends/family - do you really think there’s no effort on the part of those of us who ARE on time?! Of course there is! I have ocd, I’m housebound at present but when I’m not I have many challenges to getting to a place on time BUT that is my problem! I don’t expect others to be hanging around even 20 mins because I’ve had to check the cookers off AGAIN even though I’ve not used it that day. I account for extra time for rituals and compulsions and if I do end up running a little late (rare) i contact them, apologise and explain and if they need to reschedule/cancel so be it.
Those of us that aren’t tardy just plan properly!
“She managed to be on time for work after that.” Exactly! The vast majority of tardy people CAN and WILL be on time if not doing so majorly negatively impacts them.
Consistent, unapologetic, excessive lateness is not acceptable.
Re clocking in at work, both my parents who’ve both worked jobs in the past requiring they clock in and where your pay was calculated TO THE MINUTE very much think if most jobs still required this most people would learn quickly to be more organised and be on time!
I worked a few jobs of this type in my younger days and people were very rarely late and certainly not regularly. Those that were regularly late were sacked which frankly is how I think it should be.
As per the examples given YES if your always/regularly 10/15/however many mins late for work then it’s blindingly bloody obvious you need to leave home that no of mins EARLIER every day.
Dad being military wouldn’t stand for bollocks excuses like “traffic” on a regular basis.
One of his favoured phrases is “piss poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine!”
Any of “his lads” that chose to live off base AND THEN was regularly late would get a well earned bollocking and told to bloody well leave earlier/get an earlier bus or whatever.
In his very early days in the army (rules have since changed, he’s retired now) if a serving member chose to live off base but was consistently late for duties, they were basically told they had to move back on base!
Usual traffic patterns, cutting it too fine to catch the last bus/train to your destination is not acceptable.
As a rule of thumb allow 25% of usual journey time extra for car journeys if driving, aim to get the bus/train the one BEFORE the last one that gets you to your venue on time, then if you miss it, it's late or cancelled you get the next one and you're still on time.
For new destinations calculate using online tools the journey times - then double it! For the 1st time you do that journey, note how long it actually took you at that time of day with that traffic rate and you'll know how long you need to leave for it.
Do a dry run if you can - I've always done this for job interviews, new jobs (if in a different location to where interview was held), new drs, new schools for dd etc
Also add 25% to journey time if there's bad weather/roadworks etc
These days we get a fair amount of warning for most things!
I recently heard of someone getting a bollocking for being late to work because they blamed local roadworks - roadworks that were advertised a month in advance on sm, on signs on that road, in the local press...all over the bloody place! Boss rightly said that persons every other colleague also had to navigate that issue and they'd allowed extra time, THEY had all got in on time so he'd no excuse!