Society & Culture Being early v Being late

[GoTheSwannies]

I'm always late. Unless it's to work, a job interview or appointment.

I had to travel to Adelaide for a business trip and missed my flight cause I was 10 minutes late for check in. Luckily I had flexible travel arrangements and was able to catch the next flight.

If I'm meeting a person one on one, or it's a particularly important event then I'll make sure I'm on time, but otherwise I have a habit of cutting things very close. I don't like to be any more than 10-15 minutes early for anything.

 

[PP34]

Couldn't care less about what time I get to things that I despise/bore me to death. I aim to get to sports, the footy etc early.

 

[Ed_Gein]

If i'm meeting someone somewhere at a specific time, i always insist that they let me know when they're leaving. I sort of gauge beforehand how long it would take them to get from point A to point B beforehand sort of thing so i can get there within 5 minutes either side of their arrival. Hate waiting on someone and i hate having people wait on me. So i think that idea has a decent middle ground.

 

[St 07]

If I am early to a social gathering particularly one situated in a house/apartment I will just don a trenchcoat and fedora stand under a streetlight and stare at the house while smoking a cigarette

Holy shit, Max Payne is an Aussie. Awesome.

 

[FootyJunkie]

i tend to be slightly late for routine things, but on time for important meetings/interviews

 

[stanga]

i start 45 min to an hour before i am ment to at work everyday as after i get up and give my 14 week daughter her first feed of the day and put her back to bed there is really nothing to do at home so i head off to work . Leave 10 - 15 min earlier than the other fellas when its our lunch break so i can spend a little time with her , only get an hour and half so i cherish every min . work hours are 9-15ish til 4pm back at 5 30 til 11 ish

 

[OzBomber]

As someone who works at a cinema, people who rock up early to movies are the worst. The majority tend to think that their session is the only one on all day and that either side the cinema is just empty. Half the time they're like 'can we go in and wait until our movie starts' when there's sessions already running.

We once had a lady that came an half an hour early to her movie, ignored everything we told her about having to wait for the previous session to finish, went into the cinema and came out 10 minutes later complaining that someone was in her seat.

 

[Gasometer]

Had two near misses today at being either side of appointment time.

Both times, arrived exactly ON the appointment time minute.

Win.

 

[DrKrieger]

Too early is as bad as late, but if you're early you can always kill time if you need to.

I've drive long distances (2hrs+) for interviews before, I always planned to get there a little early, then just found myself a cafe or something, meant I could walk in the door at an appropriate time.

in saying that my time management has been a bit slack recently, I definitely have some work to do in that area.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

The only thing missing from this soliloquy is the onion on your belt, as was the fashion at the time.

Back then you could only get Edison on the wireless. A he'd say. Then B. C would usually follow ...

 

[PACatter]

Early for business, on time for dates, late for parties. It's always worked well for me.

 

[Copernicus]

I never used to much care one way or another unless it was an important thing (job interview, etc.) but I have become reflexively early in my day-to-day life through some sort of strange conditioning bestowed upon me by my wife and her family. Her mother in law is, I believe, literally compulsively early - to the point where if we ask her to show up at our place for a visit at, say, 10am we know to expect her at 8. It also means that we spend a lot of time waiting around for things to start or open on vacations with her, and also that we end up eating meals way too close together (big meals every five hours can be rough going on the belly).

I'm trying to defeat this idea of being early all the time and/or rushing around to be early, but it seems to be becoming annoyingly ingrained.

 

[LANGFORDandSON]

Another (of many) reason I hate mobile phones, in the good old days, if you were late, everyone was gone, being late negatively impacted the late person. These days, make a phone call and everyone has to wait for your privileged ass to roll up, negatively impacting the non late people.

 

[Marlowe]

My parents were (are) late for everything. When I was kid, they were always late picking me up from school. I was a regular in the after-school thing, I think that lasted to 5 p.m. each day, then the girls who ran it would leave. I can remember more than a handful of times where I would been leftover waiting until past 6. I think because of that today, I always aim for punctuality. If I have to be somewhere at 10 a.m., I'll be there at 10 a.m, and I find it never hurts to be early. I could see how arriving too early can be a) awkward and b) just silly. But it is much worse to be late.


Another instance, I was in class, it's only a short, generally, two-hour event, and we had buzzed through the work and so we were told we could head home an hour early. Just as we were packing everything up, basically each of us with one foot outside the door, in walks this one kid, always late, sits down, "where are you off to?" Embarrassing. Rude. Disrespectful. Just a waste of his time and, more importantly, everyone else's. Made me laugh, but reminded me why being later is a dick move.

 

[DrKrieger]

I never used to much care one way or another unless it was an important thing (job interview, etc.) but I have become reflexively early in my day-to-day life through some sort of strange conditioning bestowed upon me by my wife and her family. Her mother in law is, I believe, literally compulsively early - to the point where if we ask her to show up at our place for a visit at, say, 10am we know to expect her at 8. It also means that we spend a lot of time waiting around for things to start or open on vacations with her, and also that we end up eating meals way too close together (big meals every five hours can be rough going on the belly).

I'm trying to defeat this idea of being early all the time and/or rushing around to be early, but it seems to be becoming annoyingly ingrained.

Next time you invite the mother round at 10 get out of the house around 7 and don't come home till 9.30?

 

[Copernicus]

Next time you invite the mother round at 10 get out of the house around 7 and don't come home till 9.30?

That would require getting up even earlier than I would prefer. And the wife ain't gonna do it, presumably because she's used to it or doesn't want to provoke anything.

 

[Dazb86]

Always early to work or an appointment. Anything else I'm not too fussed about what time I show up.

 

[Roobs321]

For group restaurant dinners with people you don't know that well, I prefer to get there on time or early, nothing worse than being one of the last to arrive and having to sit next to someone you find it hard to talk to.

I have a tendency of arriving 5 mins beforehand. If its something incredibly important, I may get there very early, but usually I find myself racing against time. I'm practically never really late though (i.e. 10+ minutes), unless a crazy traffic jam or misplace house keys or something of the like.

 

[Tarkyn_24]

If you rely on public transport to get to places expect the person to arrive late because public transport is unrealiable these days. If you have your own transport use it but do the research of all the carparking places that are around the area where you are needing to get to. Get there in plenty of time. Sometimes it's better to be early than to be running late.
Some centrelink offices are padantic with specific times and some aren't. However, if you are job hunting get there on time because they know you're serious about getting a job.
I remember doing work for the dole a few years ago and it happened that the bus I was on was running late. The supervisor had words with me and asked me why i was late all the time. I told him straight out that I rely on public transport to get me to places and he said "you should have your own car".
Unemployed people can't afford cars. How about get a life.

Hahhaha pissing myself laughing. Best post in the thread.

 

[Shell]

As someone who works at a cinema, people who rock up early to movies are the worst. The majority tend to think that their session is the only one on all day and that either side the cinema is just empty. Half the time they're like 'can we go in and wait until our movie starts' when there's sessions already running.
.

Sometimes when I worked at Hoyts (16 cinemas) when we were under staffed you couldnt get to the cinema right when it got out. So you'd have to kick out half a dozen people sitting in there as happy as larry watching the end credits of the previous session. GTFO, do they realise we clean it??? So annoying, would you rather sit in other peoples filth?

 

[stmookeyj]

I get rather anxious and annoyed when being forced to run late thanks to others. I like being as early as possible to get to the airport (even more so now I've got lounge access! Although strangely I was never really stressed if a connecting flight is delayed), but I generally have a time in mind to get to places I need to get to rather than being specifically early or late to other things.

I also loathe being the first person at anything, I'd rather take a walk around the block to make sure someone else is there first. When I head for running events I am always relieved when I follow someone else who is heading for the same start area.

 

[Magnum27]

Personally i cannot stand being late for anything, and struggle to understand how anyone can be late . Find it rude in the extreme.

 

[Gasometer]

Got there 15 minutes early and got looked after straight away....only to wait 35 minutes for my issue to be dealt with.

 

[OzBomber]

Sometimes when I worked at Hoyts (16 cinemas) when we were under staffed you couldnt get to the cinema right when it got out. So you'd have to kick out half a dozen people sitting in there as happy as larry watching the end credits of the previous session. GTFO, do they realise we clean it??? So annoying, would you rather sit in other peoples filth?

Yup, generally they're actually okay with sitting in there whilst there'd be others who could find a staff member and say 'why is my cinemas filthy', when we haven't actually had the chance to clean it yet. I've had times where there's already 15-20 people in there and it's hard to get them out so you just have to clean around them but they can't really complain when you're not actually supposed to go into your cinema until the starting time.

 

[Gasometer]

Yup, generally they're actually okay with sitting in there whilst there'd be others who could find a staff member and say 'why is my cinemas filthy', when we haven't actually had the chance to clean it yet. I've had times where there's already 15-20 people in there and it's hard to get them out so you just have to clean around them but they can't really complain when you're not actually supposed to go into your cinema until the starting time.

Off topic...
Reminds me of a refuel in India. We were picking passengers up but those going on could stay on the Plane for the 45 minute refuel.
Low and behold 10 cleaners come on board and do the cleaning around the twenty or so of us left on the Plane.
Refuel, passengers board and off we go to New Delhi.
1999 it was.