February 4, 2020 |

No One Minds Lateness Now

We are all busy people.  Often our days are a juggling act of meetings, appointments and trying to get some work done in between.  I’m kind of a punctuality geek.  I pride myself on being early to meetings and when I have a call scheduled, I call on time – to the minute.  I literally have the number punched in and watch my phone for the clock to change to exactly 1:00 – or whatever the call time is.  And each week, at least one person compliments me on my punctuality.

But I’m not one of these guys who gets mad or offended when others aren’t so punctual.  Actually, I’m quite understanding.  Why?  Well…for the same reason that most of us are probably o.k. with it…I have my phone.

It’s an amazing thing.  Even though someone may be running late, overslept, or even misses a meeting, I am completely unfazed.  I just sit there, completely content, reading the news, looking at the markets, or pushing business along via email and text.  When my person arrives, I retire my phone and we get down to business.

It’s a combination of productivity tool and adult pacifier.

Now, I’m not suggesting that chronic or perpetual lateness is ok.  Or, that wasting someone else’s time is now ok because they can just read their phone.  However, it sure beats the old days when all we could do was sit at the designated meeting place, unable to communicate, unable to confirm via text that they are “on their way” and no idea if they are going to show up.  Staring out the window was often the default activity.

So, when someone is running late for a meeting or a call…relish the adult pacifier you have in your hand.  Your meeting will happen.  It just may be a little late.