I have a friend who is ALWAYS late. She says that she can't help it. I personally think she can if she deducted some mirror time. No matter what the situation is she is absurdly late. I personally find it rude and self-centered. What is your opinion?
That's something I've wondered about myself. There's something of an idea that, if you decide to go somewhere, you can be up to fifteen minutes later/earlier than the time and still be there. I try to be early. I'm not, often enough, but I TRY.
I find it really difficult to be on time. If I AM on time, early, or organised, it disorientates me to the point that it makes me late. E.g I spend 20 minutes looking for my keys because I didn't expect me to put them in my bag in advance.
That could be part of the personality test Lethe posted earlier. If you're a "P" you're more likely to take things as they come, and deadlines don't matter as much. For some people who are almost 100% "P," being on time will be difficult. My best friend is a "P" and she's always 15-20 minutes late to meet-ups. I just realized that's how she is and I got over it... but I was pretty pissed at her at first. Some people are also just rude and inconsiderate. Whether it's okay for me to get angry or not, I think, depends on the person - are they rude or are they just late by nature? Also, the personality thing doesn't fit all people - Lethe is the same type as my friend and he's always on time / very early.
The real world is going to offer her a whoop-ass sized wakeup call sooner rather than later. Especially when she's gainfully employed for the first time.
I know a couple of people like that. I have learned the valuable lesson in life that you simply can not change other people or their rude habits. If I have a get together and invite one of them, if my party is for 7PM, I invite them at 6:30PM. If by chance they are on time, it isn't so early that it would be awkward but makes it far more likely they will get there on time even if they are late.
One of the worst forms of impoliteness. If you're constantly late, don't expect me to wait for you at all. I'll happily wait any length of time for someone whom I know to be reliable usually, because I realize some things can go wrong sometimes. I have also been late unwillingly now and again. But a repeated careless offender is either there sharp the next time, or he won't meet me.
It's incredibly rude. But then, I'm totally anal about being on time for stuff. So much so, that when I was having therapy, the psychiatric nurse tried to make me be late for stuff. Couldn't do it.
I find those kinds of people to be completely unreliable. Uless they actually do have a really good reason to be late, it shows they are uncommitted.
There are many different opininons why some people are always late. “It’s a habit that is more often a symptom of personality characteristics such as anxiety, low self-control, or a penchant for thrill-seeking.” Neurotic need for superiority: "I contribute so much on the job, I don't need to be there on time." Chronic Lateness Sufferers, cannot be on time. That higher power has determined it so. Had a Psych Professor who considered chronic tardiness as a symptom of perfectionism. That being late to class was a built in excuse for potential failure. If a student got a D it wasn't their fault it was the variety of reasons that prevented them being on time that was to blame. To me, second to chronic misspelling, always being late is the most obvious sign that someone is incompetent.
I knew a soldier in the Army (didn't work for me) who was very religious. She didn't use an alarm, because she said she had faith in God to wake her in time. Yes, God did drop the ball from time-to-time.
It's rude, rude, rude to ALWAYS be late. I once had a friend like that. We'd always miss the beginning of movies, walk into shows just as the house lights went out, be late for dinners out.... I recall a night when the gang had an 8:00 resrvation for dinner at a nice place, and we were all at my house waiting for John to show up so we could follow each other. At 8:01 we gave up on him and left without him. Halfway down out block, there came John! I stopped the car, my friend Neil jumped out of my car, and jumped onto the hood of John's car (yeah, he'd stopped) and started screaming at him through the windshield!
I also thinks its rude as hell to show up early and then make others feel like they are late when they are spot on time
I place as much value on constantly tardy people as I do on those who feel the need to abbreviate words so horrendously in thread titles...
I don't know how I manage, but I always seem to get where I'm going within just a few minutes, plus or minus. We need to be somewhere at 8, and I just get this itch when I feel it's time to leave. Mary will be saying "Little early, isn't it?" and I'll insist. Then we'll hit traffic or something that slows us down, and we get to our friends' house at 7:59 or 8:01. I guess it's my barely useful super power.
