People who are chronically late should be lined up against a wall and...

The BBQ Pit
1

Ok…I’m tired of this. I’m sick of people who are always LATE! I don’t mean being a few minutes late here and there…I mean always late by at least 20 minutes or more. It’s very inconsiderate. Don’t those people know (or care?) that they are inconviencing others? If you have an appointment at 3, show up at 3, not 3:20, not 3:40, but 3:00! If you have to meet someone for, say, dinner or a movie and agree to meet at 7, how about showing up at 7?
And these people seem to know that they are always late! WHY? Why don’t you care that you are making other people late? If you know that you are always late, make an effort to be earlier! All i see is that they laugh it off. “Oh, well. I’m always late. hahaha.” No one is laughing!
(Yes, i know that people who make appointments are sometimes kept waiting…i’m not talking about that. That doesn’t happen as often as the people who are always late being late.)

MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!

2

This is a major peeve of mine, too. My mother-in-law was late to our wedding; we had to delay the ceremony. This woman, god love her, is late to everything. Whenever we have a family get-together, we tell her the function starts an hour earlier than it really does. She’s still late, but an hour less late than she would be otherwise.

3

Maryann I am with you all the way. my friends told me they were going to be at my house yesterday at 7:00 pm I broke a date with my girlfriend. Told my parents I couldn’t come over for diner and turned down overtime at work! did they show up at 7:00-nope
8:00-no
9:00-sorry
10? 11? 11:30? no one.
slightly after midnight my buzzer rings and my friends show up!!! They said they were having a good time and didn’t know what time it was. I could have killed them!!!

no matter where you go…there you are

4

My sister’s a late one too. If we make plans, we have to figure them for “Jennifer time”. When she got married to a more-or-less punctual guy, we had to factor in the “Andy coefficient”, which evens it out a little.

5

“Repent Harlequin, said the Tick-Tock Man.”

6

I had a friend in high school that was so chronicly late that we just started subtracting a half hour from whenever we actually wanted to meet her somewhere. For instance “Hey, Shirl. The movie starts at 7 so meet us out front at 6:30.” The movie of course didn’t start until 7:30 and we of course wouldn’t plan on even being there until 7, when she would probably come running up in her usual frazzled state. It was a lot of fun when I became a manager because I actually got to FIRE people who couldn’t be bothered to show up on time. Don’t get me wrong. I never canned someone because they had a flat tire or their bus broke down or something. But if you’re 15 minutes late EVERY SINGLE DAY, you need to get with the program and I’m not going to pay you to do it.

7

Ok…I’m tired of this. I’m sick of people who are always LATE! I don’t mean being a few minutes late here and there…I mean always late by at least 20 minutes or more.

I didn’t realize at first that you knew my aunt Carmen.
You know, she’s the one with the fake red hair who always insisted we call her ‘aunt’ so as to make the age difference more apparent. She’s forever young, you know.
Well, that worked up until the time that I got to be relatively as old as she was, and could outdo her on gray hair possession.

Hah! You got 'em on yer head, your colorist missed one, check these chest hairs! Real gray, I’m a silverback, I am!

Sure shut her the hell up!

Oh, I forgot, the time.
Anyway, aunt Carmen was always late, really late, and on purpose too. It always made her feel, special maybe? in charge? her time is worth more than yours?

So there we were, waiting again, christmas dinner. Waiting. I’m hungry, what’s the holdup? Carmen isn’t here yet, another aunt said.
“Fuck her, she’s always two hours late, I said.” “let’s eat”
There was a moment of shocked silence, then laughter. And we ate without her.
(Did I say anything that wasn’t true?)

Tell your Carmen to show up on time for her appointment, or charge her a cancellation fee.
If you get a walk-in the meantime, make her wait until you’re finished. ( I honor appointments too, when they show up on time)

You can never afford to lose good customers, but you can never afford to keep bad ones.
She’ll have to decide which one she is.
And so will you.

8

LOL, guys. i had a friend that we had to lie about the time, too. But one day we just got tired of it and told her the correct time.
It was Christmas. All of us in our circle planned a dinner party with opening gifts when we were done. We had to be somewhere after all that. It was something that was VERY important to be there on time. And she knew it. We drilled it in her head to be at so-and-so’s house at a certain time. She swore up and down that she’d be there.
So the time arrives. of course, she’s not there. We waited and finally decided to heck with it. we started eating without her. She arrived just as we were finishing dessert. She got very mad at us. “You guys KNOW I’m always late!”. We told her that from now on if she’s not anywhere when she should be that we’d leave without her. And we did. She seemd to think that because she’s always like that then it was acceptable and we should revolve life around her.
And you know what? She was STILL always late! She would always yell at us for not accomodating HER.

MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!

9

BugZap…that’s exactly what i do. If someone is late, I let them know it. but i’m nice about it. Let’s say the appointment is at 2 and they show up at 2:20 and I have a 2:30. They come in and I say “Did you know your appointment was at 2:00?” They give me their excuse. if I can’t move it to someone else (ie. no one was free or it was a request) I tell them when the next opening is. If they get mad, too bad, so sad! I am not going to keep the next one waiting.
I’ll try to accomodate if I can. If it’s an extremely slow day i will tell them that and that i can still do them THIS TIME. If they wanted a haircut and style and I don’t have time to dry and style it but can at least cut it, i tell them that. i don’t care if it makes them mad. My time is too valuable. It irks me when i have to turn away an appointment because I’m expecting someone and they are very late and I could have done that person that wanted to get in.
Another peeve…people who don’t bother show up for an appointment! Pick up a phone, darn it! I could be doing other people in your place!
This was so cool…a regular customer had an appointment and didn’t show up. She showed up the next day and asked for the girl who was going to do her. She apologized profusely and explained what happened (it was a good excuse…it was an involved story and she couldn’t get to a phone) and actually paid for the appointment and gave the girl a huge tip! She said she knew that she could have done others in her place and lost out on some money. That was great!

MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!

10

Sorry, I just got here…did I miss anything?

11

I think we should schedule the execution for the chronically late about 30 minutes after the line up for the chronically anal-retentive.

President of the Vernon Dent fan club.

12

You mean 30 minutes before, that way they’ll all get there at the same time. :wink:

13

A lady I know who does costuming has a great system.

In the paperwork you sign when you contract for her to make your garb, it’s clearly stated that the first time you miss or are late to a fitting, or any meeting you have, that’s free. however, after that you will be charged about $20 for each missed/late appointment, and that for each time you have to reschedule, she cannot then guarentee that the garb will be completed on the time agreed upon, since the appts were missed.

Melis

Wench #407, IWG
Wenchmommy extraordinaire
Goddess of Typos, Dark Chocolate and Fyne Ale
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.

14

Some major university that I cant remember did a study of late people. They said that they were ‘fighting authority’ but I never got an explanation on this. Any ideas?

15

Sure. The philosophy is this: “You can make me go, but you can’t make me get there on time.”
In my experience, people who are chronically late feel that they have too little control over their lives. They’re people who constantly have authority figures watching over their shoulders and dictating what they should and should not do.
Being late is a small rebellion.

16

Holly–a VERY small rebellion. Otherwise known as “being rude.”

17

(wiping tears) that was so funny…it totally reminds me of my aunt & uncle.He is as slow as cold molasses running uphill in January, and she is an anal whirlwind of compensatory efficiency.(hand cramp!)

18

<<Holly–a VERY small rebellion. Otherwise known as “being rude.”>>
Rude, yes. As a compulsively punctual person, I’m aggravated by such behavior, but it DOES make the aggravation easier to bear if you understand the reasons behind the rudeness.
Besides, there’s a difference between understanding rude behavior and putting up with it. :wink:

19

My best friend is a chronically late person and has been for the 16 years I’ve known her. I’ve also done the tell-her-30-minutes-early thing; it seems to work pretty well.

The one time I nearly almost blew my stack with her (well, besides the time she made us late to our mutual 2nd best friend’s wedding) was when she casually commented about how she was NEVER late to work. I felt that was saying that she was capable of being on time when it really mattered, but that inconveniencing your friends on an almost daily basis didn’t matter.

Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.

20

Sheesh! Everyone busting on late people! Hey, I happen to be one! I am not late when I am already awake, such as meeting people for dinner, movies, etc. My lateness is always “trying to wake up to go somewhere like work” lateness. I happen to sleep like a rock and if I have to get up in the morning, that just makes it worse. I have worked nights ever since high school, and that has made a huge difference. I know that other people count on me to wake up, but I cannot help it. I have gotten a little better (sleeping lighter) since I am a dad now, but I dont have to wake when he does so no pressure there. No, there is not an alarm clock built that will wake me for more than 5 times in a row…eventually I get used to a new alarm (louder or more annoying) and will sleep through it. The bad part is, sometimes the wife makes it worse, she wakes up to the alarm first (of course) turns it off and gives me a bump and hopefully I will wake up before she conks out again. You can see how this doesn’t work. So from me I will say that at least I try, no amount of bitching from someone else will ever make me wake up on time and remove forever my late problem. I feel bad enough myself about being late, and to have someone start to ream me out, well, lets just say I wouldn’t put up with that.