If they are 10 minutes late and we are 5 minutes late, then we are earlier than them. Some say, that in our culture, punctuality is the ability to be late earlier.
Wakey, wakey!
The alarm rings at 6 am.
Just press the snooze. You really don’t intend waking up till 6.15am.
The alarm rings after 9 minutes.
Just one more time. It is not 6.15am yet.
You may press snooze once or twice again, till you really get out of bed feeling rushed. - But you still believe you can leave home by 7.30 am or 7.40 am the latest. Your morning routine progresses but you suddenly notice some urgencies that you did not notice the night before. They demand you attend to them ‘right now’. You check the watch. It is 7.35am.
But it is really 7.30 am. You have set your watch 5 minutes early.
Miscellaneous work that seem urgent. It is 7.50 am now.
You hit the road hoping the traffic is not too bad.
Oh! Are the roads closed?
There is no way you are going to be there at 8 am.
But tomorrow for sure……… |
How serious are we about ‘time’? For some, punctuality seems a minor accomplishment in the workplace where employees are primarily assessed on their professional skills in leadership, teamwork, creativity or other dimensions from company competency frameworks. However, most may agree that punctuality is fundamental in the professionalism we bring into whatever we do.
Punctuality may seem straightforward and simple but the reality is that it is really quite revealing of the person who endorses it as a habit. Being late announces that we are not able to keep a time commitment, that we are unreliable, irresponsible and inconsiderate towards people who honour their own valuable time.
Punctuality is a sign of respect that would earn the same in return and nowhere is this more obvious than in the workplace. There is a string of words that is associated with punctuality. These are characteristics such as conscientiousness, precision, prudence, dependability, trustworthiness, loyalty, credibility, and the list goes on. These are all vital in what has traditionally been called as ‘character’. I once coached a team of young executives whose performance as a team had been dwindling due to unspoken tensions.
 One of the first diagnoses I made about the team was their inconsistency in reporting to work and meeting on time. Two out of the five membrs treated deadlines casually, whereas the other three members struggled to complete their targets on time. When the team was asked to write about their frustrations, the punctual members stated that they were being taken for granted and that their precious time had been wasted on waiting for the others to turn up. For these members, this was also a sign of disrespect when they did not even call to say that they were getting late or apologize upon arrival.
Lack of organisation was seen as a deficit skill in the two members who had no respect for time. These two members confessed to being late for everything from social gatherings to their interpersonal relationships. One HR manager I once worked with, pointed out how he had to monitor people personally in order to get them back to work after a breakfast or a lunch break. I have interviewed people who had turned up for their interviews late. In this case, normally my first question would be as to why they could not make it on time for their first encounter with an organisation they have chosen to work for. We have all been in the shoes of a client or a customer waiting at the lounge area or counters of ‘professional’ businesses who boast about their customer service. I wonder whether our laid back attitude towards time has anything to do with this.
I once worked for an organisation where the chairs of the late comers were removed after a designated time if they had failed to turn up for a meeting. In this case, the ones who come late would stand throughout the meeting. The same organisation rewarded punctuality falling under a new category called ‘professional courtesy’. I have heard of managers who would close the doors of the meeting rooms or would get them to do something embarrassing before the rest of the team.
There are brilliant workers who had been penalised because of their perpetual lateness to work. Late is no longer ‘fashionably late’. It is just an excuse. Research reveals how chronic lateness is related to procrastination and it is common sense that procrastination hinders career progress. We know that we annoy others around us when we do not stick to timelines. However, some of us repeatedly get late. Why is it very difficult to be punctual?
If we belong to the ‘guaranteed to be late’ category, we would be having trouble not much with time, but with self-discipline. If we really pay some attention, we may encounter a ‘spoilt child’ within us, who would balk at being told what to do. This ‘spoilt child’ does not like to be exerted and thus rationalises that we do not have to stick to a rigid schedule, whilst distracting us by making excuses about the urgencies of nonsensical tasks.
The ‘spoilt child’ also resists preparing for things that we may look forward to. Just as with work, getting ready for positive events demands focus and blocking out distractions. The laid back attitude of our ‘spoilt child’ hates concentration. Therefore, if we want to master our chronic lateness, merely rearranging our schedule is not adequate. We must also understand our inner ‘spoilt child’ who interferes with our best efforts to be on time.
Chronic lateness is not an illness; it is just a practice or a way of life. In a fast-paced and heavily scheduled world, punctuality is more a responsibility to ourselves than to anyone else.
(Comments on this column could be sent to rozaine@forte.lk).
Business Editor’s note – There are many people who have maintained puncutuality in the workplace. Among them, retired John Keells Holdings (JKH) Chairman Ken Balendra is a stickler for discipline and punctuality. At JKH, he had a system of penalising directors and others who came late for meetings presided over by him. |
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