God, lateness really winds me up. Why are people so late?

[pointing]

If you're a late person, why?!

I always found it infuriating at work when meetings were allowed to overrun for no good reason other than someone liking the sound of their own voice.

Lateness as a trait is very unattractive. For me, being on time is about old fashioned respect and courtesy for the other person.

I'm late for things I don't want to go to. Like work.

I wouldn't have any problem with this. A Zoom call in the evening or weekend in lockdown is not like being outside somewhere waiting for someone. You can just start later surely.

Yeah maybe people without young children can, but I can't. It happened yesterday to me again. Mum didn't call until half 4, so she got 20 mins only because I had to feed my toddler and then speak to the in-laws. She wasn't best pleased but then she should have called earlier. She's the one with infinite freedom from responsibility at the moment! I'm not.

I'm late for things I don't want to go to. Like work.

Maybe you're attitude is why you have a job you don't like doing.

Maybe you're attitude is why you have a job you don't like doing

I was the boss and I was relaxed about arrival times as we all stayed late so often.

I've liked/disliked all my jobs about the same. They're all time consuming and boring but no one's allowed to say so for fear of being labeled a shirker.

It drives me mad, I'm in time, if not early, for everything. I plan my day to make sure I am. I have a friend who is late for everything, sometimes by hours, how can this even be possible? Gggrrrr

For me, being on time is about old fashioned respect and courtesy for the other person

Yes.

I think you just decide whether you can put up with it or not. I don't think you can change late people. I did have one friend who was forever late, it just spoilt any activity we'd planned to do. Nothing like sitting dressed and made-up for 1 hour+ with said friend saying she'd be there soon. So boring and inconvenient. I just stopped seeing her, I did explain why though. I've never regretted not having to deal with that anymore. I also used to work with freelancers quite a lot, anyone who was late on 3 occasions I'd let them go as it's simply not good for business. I don't get into the reasons why people are consistently late generally, I already know it doesn't suit me so I just don't bother with latecomers.

DH is always 15 mins late, it's his most annoying personality trait. Obviously I am perfect so I put up with it, but if it's a joint thing I always factor in his lateness. So lunch with my family, table is booked for 12:30, I tell DH 12. Same with any other appointments etc. No I shouldn't have to do it but it saves an argument about him being late. I am always early, for everything. He manages to be early or on time for work and flights etc so he can do it.

His problem is, he tries to squeeze too much into his time and doesn't allow enough time for things. For example, Dd nursery run. She finishes at 3:15. Who ever is picking her up drives, so it's a 10 minute drive, DH will leave just after 3. I leave at 2:45. Because he forgets how busy it is to park near the school, forgets to factor in time unloading dd2 in and out of the car into her pushchair etc. I do end up waiting in the car for 5 mins usually but he normally has to run with dd2 in his arms (rather than waste time getting the pushchair out of the boot).

He also doesn't factor in the kids a lot of the time, in the sense that the youngest will do a poo explosion just as you leave and need a complete change of clothes. Or cajoling the 4 year old into having a wee before you leave. All takes time but he doesn't think of it.

"If you wait around for someone to come to a call you could have been doing something else."

You don't have to wait around for a call, you can already be doing something else. Don't really get this.

"maybe you had other plans."

Well I suppose you might have another Zoom call, but what else can you have planned during lockdown?

"TBH, if that happened once i may forgive it but i would be explaining in long and graphic detail that it is not to happen again. 2nd time would be the last time. "

I don't have such luxury of dumping friends.

"Yes I agree with this - I think some people think that if you are on time for meetings you are not busy enough."

To be honest, I kind of agree with the boss being slightly late for meetings. I've been in meetings where the boss is early or on time when others are late and it's very embarrassing. At the end of the day, my boss's time is more valuable than mine in economic terms.

I am almost always on time. But time appreciation in general is something that people differ sigificantly on.

Most people have a sort of threshold where they feel comfortable. It's like some people only feel ok if they have $1000 in savings in the bank, and other people feel comfortable as long as they don't owe more than $1000.

Some people are actually not easily able to understand how long things take. This is typical of people with ADD, they think they have enough time but everything takes far longer than they realise it will.

Culture also makes a difference. Different cultures have different ideas about how late or early you should be, and consider it rude if you don't follow the rules. There can also be variations on this within nations, or in certain work settings and such.

All of the people I complain about being late are of my culture so no excuse there. They don't suffer from ADD or any other thing. They're literally just disorganised