The next decade....what's in store?

Why are people not punctual?

I asked myself this question today.

While growing up, we were not a very punctual (*I must be tired....do you know I wrote the word 'function' instead of 'punctual' awhile ago?*)family, and still aren't as a unit. But my individual punctuality records have improved ten fold. You know why? Cause of living in England.

In my first stint in 1992/3, I was doing work experience in a hotel in Leeds. One phase involved working in the kitchen. The person who I was assigned to work with wasn't being very helpful or friendly. So I asked another of the guys what he thought might be the matter. He said....and it hit me like a ton of bricks....something to the effect that

'look at it from his perspective. he is not getting paid for training you, he doesn't get overtime and you come down to work late even though you're living here right in the hotel'.

He didn't say anything that was not so. I lived in the hotel, and yes, I was sometimes late. I'm talking 3 minutes late, 5 minutes late. Never more than 7 mintues late. And to be honest, I didn't think anything of it. And yes I was aware that I was late.

So after that, I endeavoured to be more punctual. Then between 1995 and 1997, I worked with a General Manager who had an operations briefing every morning at 9am. He had strict rules. If anybody was late, they would be locked out. This always applied, and he was a victim too (he told us it applied to him as well). So that saw me many a morning running from the parking lot, only to find out that perhaps our clock didn't say the same time and so I was locked out. Blame it on the clocks, and the traffic...horrible in Kingston)

That also helped my punctuality. The second stint in England 2001 - 3 also helped. Missed a couple of trains. I remember after running down the stairs to the platform one time, seeing the train pulling out and saying 'but it's only 1 minute past the departure time!' and hearing the platform guy who sends off the train say that the train waits for no one.

But I've realized very recently that people don't take the punctuality thing seriously. Perhaps if they missed a few trains they might. Perhaps if I locked them out of the training room they might.

Posted by yamfoot at January 2, 2005 12:15 AM