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It is not fashionable to be late! |
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You are running behind, you are 37 minutes late, people are waiting. It’s okay, right? They know you are busy.
Actually, it matters a lot. And who really cares if you are busy or not – so are the people waiting.
Being late is one of the most offensive habits. By making people wait, you are telling them that their time is not important (or at least not as important as your time) and that you don’t have the professional competence to allocate and manage your time to meet your commitments. You don’t have respect for your time and you don’t have respect for their time.
Am I being harsh?
No! I was recently kept waiting for more than one and a half hours for a meeting. Do I really want that work now? Keeping people waiting is de-motivating and disrespectful. I don’t want the work that bad. I want to work with people who respect me and my time. I do the same for them.
There will be times when we are late – it happens to all of us no matter how efficient we are. We apologize, make amends, and move on. The problem is if being late is chronic and the person doesn’t take any action to get better with their time.
If you are always late and don’t do anything about it, put a bag over your head because that is really how big your world is. Let the rest of us allocate our time and commitments effectively and treat people’s time with respect. It doesn’t matter what the other person’s position is by the way – treat it with respect or don’t agree to the meeting in the first place. Always being late is a sign of ineffectiveness and it shows up in other areas of your work and life. If being late bothers you, do something about it!
Each week, plan out your agenda and add a half-hour to your meeting times so you have room for flexibility. Be prepared. Each night, plan out your schedule for the next day, make changes if needed, and meet your commitments.
Physicians take note – the term “waiting room” doesn’t mean that is what its there for. Just because you have a “Dr.” in front of your name doesn’t mean you have the right to double book and keep people waiting. Smarten up, you got through medical school, you should be able to plan your time.
My advice: get a daytimer, use Outlook, and plan out your time. You will respect your time and other people’s time, and you will gain respect in return.
Just my thinking…
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