People being late for everything

bitslice said:
God I hate Time Nazis, they always seem to be people with naff all else to do other than organise pointless meetings so they can bitch about people who have more important work to do.
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So you arrange to go see your favourite band with your mate and ask him to be there at 8pm but he turns up at 9pm and you miss half the set - you would be OK with that?
 
As per one poster that already does... Just leave/eat/start without them. make them feel the tard that they are when they turn up and everyone has already left/ already tucked into their starter/missed the reason for the meeting..
On the other hand, don't put up with it if you have an appointment, 30 mins max wait then just get up and walk out.. Rearrange with them along with some stern words about how valuable your time is..

For the one that was saying about arriving at 9am isn't always possible because of lost socks and keys.
Yes it is... GET OFF YOUR ARSE SOONER.
If you're early, Fantastic, put the kettle on, make a brew, catch up with the newspaper or whatever and then get on with your day on time!
 
In my job the training instructor told me

"if you're 5 minutes early, congratulations you are on time"

"if you're on time, well done, your Sir are late"

&

"if you turn up 5 minutes late, you'd better be bleeding or stand by to leave bleeding"

-

Needless to say, my job requires the mass movement of 1200 of societies worst individuals on a specific time scale. I can't stand lateness, people can get seriously hurt if you are not in your designated position early, to be ready on time so that they are not late!

Josh
 
I have a mate who has NEVER been on time for anything I organise. eventually it rubbed off on me and I started to turn up between an hour and 2 hours late for anything we were doing.
thing is now he has started taking the mick out of me for it haha
 
Dimple said:
So you arrange to go see your favourite band with your mate and ask him to be there at 8pm but he turns up at 9pm and you miss half the set - you would be OK with that?
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I prefer not to rely on other people's schedules or travel arrangements, it creates avoidable situations like the one you mentioned. If I was say relying on him for a lift then that would be my own fault for not making my own way there.

I'm sure there must be some other hypothetical scenario which could create annoyance, but I'm still not going to insist other people are on time. It's just a nice thing to have, not something to get prissy over.
 
bitslice said:
I'm sure there must be some other hypothetical scenario which could create annoyance, but I'm still not going to insist other people are on time. It's just a nice thing to have, not something to get prissy over.
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Well you've left yourself way open for hypothetical scenes that you can worm your way out of and pretend you wouldn't be annoyed by other people arriving late.
 
Dimple said:
Well you've left yourself way open for hypothetical scenes that you can worm your way out of and pretend you wouldn't be annoyed by other people arriving late.
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Somewhat prejudiced language there? :confused:
I don't intend to worm out of anything, I just can't recall a situation where I was annoyed at someone else being late, that's all *shrug*

I'm pretty sure people must split into two groups, those that get annoyed at this aspect of life and those that don't. I don't feel my time is any more or less important than anyone else's.
Some people do up the top button on their shirt, some don't.
 
Got to admit I'm terrible at time keeping and often turn up late for things. No excuse for it, I just leave things to the last minute or find something that I "need" to do before leaving.

I'm getting better though, particularly for social events.

For work I arrange my own day and have no strict schedule so rarely have anything to be late for.

I was terrible at school though, so much so that my teachers gave up and just expected me to be late. I didn't care then as I'd rather have a few more minutes in bed but looking back I can see how annoying it must have been.
 
I stopped reading after this;

10 people kept waiting in a meeting for 20 minutes, while some selfish pratt who idles his way via the coffee shop, is actually 20 minutes times 10, which is 200 minutes wasted - while you keep us waiting because you did not catch the earlier bus. That is over 3 hours wasted. By you! How much has that cost the business? Shall I send you an invoice?
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As anyone who adds up time like that isn't worth listening to.
 
Participant said:
The people that are always late because they yack so much BS at their previous meeting, and think they're big bosses and are therefore allowed to be casual with their timings are the ones I can't stand.
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This may come across a bit ivory towers but "my previous meeting overran" is one of those self-perpetuating issues that could probably be resolved if people just walked out of [internal] meetings to attend their next one. Yes it would cause some minor disruption for a while but sooner or later people would adapt and start paying closer attention to planned meeting times. On a related note it probably doesn't help that people tend to book meetings in half-hour blocks meaning that often people will have another meeting starting at the time the previous one finishes.

One thing that did annoy me a bit was when going to a client meeting for the first time, the person giving me a lift turned up late and then stopped off at his house to drop off a book or something, before driving at a steady 60 on the motorway (I'm not suggesting he should have been speeding but he needed to be going 70 to reduce the lateness that was his own doing). We were 40minutes late in the end which was far from an ideal start considering I had to sheepishly enter the meeting late never having met the clients before. Before the 'should have made your own way there' brigade chime in, I was simply doing as instructed by the project manager by sharing a lift.

My best mate always used to be late to social events so we started telling him earlier times. I'd worked out that usually the time you agreed to meet him would be the time he'd leave wherever he was before, so when he lived 20mins away from town I took to leaving home half an hour later than I would have otherwise. Sometimes he'd pick me up in his car and would be like "that clock in my car is 15mins fast, I do it so I'm not late for things...." when of course it would actually be about 3mins fast and he'd already be late.

All in all I think it depends a bit on the situaton, if a large group is meeting then a couple of people being late is no big deal; if it is two people meeting then it can be a problem if someone has to wait around on their own (e.g. restaurant scenario)
 
HangTime said:
My best mate always used to be late to social events so we started telling him earlier times
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Used to do this with one of my mates. He averaged 1-2 hours late for everything! so we'd tell him a few hours early but he kept being late. In the end we'd just get him to meet the rest of us somewere instead. Ring us when you get there and we'll tell you were we are kind of thing.

I've also had another friend who invited everyone round for a bbq, i got there and nobody was there, including the host, he'd gone to the shop. Damn enar went home again.

Also hate people that make me late. Drives me crazy!
 
Some of the replies on this are hilarious haha- all true though nothing worse than when people are excessively late and no proper reason is given at all.
 
I'm the opposite I'm always the first there or get to an appointment 30mins before it's due. Always been like that yes I have to sit around waiting but I'd rather be early then late.
 
Annoys the sweet bejesus out of me.

The wife's friends can never, ever, make anything on time, neither truth be told, can my wife if she's on her own.
 
i had the opposite of this happen once, i was catching a workboat and got told to be there for 7am so i arrived all ready at 6:55 to see it in the lock meaning i had to board a smaller boat and transfer across.

when i got onboard i got a lecture about when i am told 7am it means 6:45, my response was that if they want me there for 6:45 tell me thats when they want me there and that its a stupid system.

i hate being late myself and i hate others being late but i seem to be more tolrable to people being late then to being late myself, although i have also worked with people who arrive for work 5 mins late every day as thats there routine.

i have also been on training courses where if you dont arrive by the start time the door is locked and you dont attend, i believe some flexability is required and its not always possible to ring ahead but to walk in late because you had to stop for a coffee or a bacon bun is reason to reject someone imo... i have yet to be on a course that doesnt allow for a drink.
 
I can't stand poor punctuality. It's rude, but also it's stressful being late. I'd rather be slightly early and able to prepare, calm down or just chill before meeting or whatever.

This goes for non work things as well - the problem is that now with mobile phones people feel more empowered to cancel/delay appointments as if telling someone they're going to be late is a valid excuse.

I am in total agreement with the OP. It's not just rude and disrespectful, it's also rather irritating to others.
 
I have recently enlisted the help of a solicitor to help with an issue I've posted about recently. His knowledge and expertise is brilliant and so far he's been a huge help to me. But my god he's never on time to anything!
 
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