I recently attended a business training for 45 people.
I arrived 15 minutes early to the classroom and to my surprise… no one was there. My calendar confirmed that I was at the right location, but not a one of the other attendees or an instructor was present.
It wasn’t until about 2 minutes to the start of the class that someone showed up to start turning on the lights.
When did late become the new normal?
Is Anyone on Time Any More?
Do these sound familiar in your workplace?
- People regularly arrive at appointments starting at the appointed time and then trickling in for the next 10-15 minutes.
- Meetings repeatedly restarting as late attendees arriving
- Standing meetings that never start on time
- Deadlines that are more guidelines since they are infrequently met
When did late become the new normal? And more importantly, when did it become acceptable?
And if your team is willing to accept lateness as a norm, what will they be accepting of next? Late projects. Late deadlines.
Here are some tips to avoid lateness in your workplace:
- Start the meeting on time no matter who is missing.
- If someone stands you up or is late repeatedly, don’t accept meetings in the future.
- Don’t accept late as normal. Set expectations that meetings times are start times not arrival times.
- Don’t schedule back-to-back meetings. You are setting yourself up to be late.
When Did Late Become the New Normal in Business?
You don’t have to accept lateness in your business.
Don’t be late in your obligations and don’t tolerate it from those that will waste your time.
As the old saying goes, “Ten minutes early is on time.”
Question: Is lateness accepted in your workplace? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Early is on time. On time is late. If you’re late, I’ve left.
Early is great. But if the meeting is at my office, home, location, etc., don’t be too early. That disrespects my time, too, as I am engaged in something else, and want/need to finish it. But wonderful recommendation.
“Me”, perfectly understand your point…. but is all about planning your day so one can be at meetings on time, not waste everyones time. So much time and productivity is wasted when meetings start late and people are unprepared…..
Great post buddy.
I love it when a person starts a meeting on time no matter who is missing. Makes me feel like my time is important.
Thank you Craig! This is a great post and I’m totally agree with you.
I don’t tolerate lateness it’s for me a huge red flag for disrespectful persons. As you know better than others time is too valuable to waste waiting for people to come to a scheduled event that was in their calendars at least weeks ago and they accepted it. It also shows those persons cannot be trusted.
When I chair meetings I start on the dot no matter who’s there or not. People are free to mess with their time not mine.
I will probably print this article and put it on very single desk in my Amazon site.
YES! Start times are not arrival times!
I grew up with my dad always telling us, “On time is 10 minutes early.” It drives me crazy when people are late to meetings, lunch dates, appointments, whatever. It’s disrespectful and wastes people’s time. We’re all too busy to stand around and wait!
My dad retired a few years ago and showed up 10 minutes late for a family event due to circumstances beyond his control. He joked that since he’s retired, “On time is 10 minutes late!” Ah, funny man! 🙂
Sounds great, but… what if it’s always the bosses showing up late?
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