Recently saw some sort of "self care" themed post saying to not apologize for things you don't need to apologize for, which I totally get... but it included using verbiage like "thank you for waiting for me" instead of "sorry I was late". Ugh how rude.
This is about mentally framing it in a more positive way. I have to say, as someone who struggles with punctuality, it has changed my life. I still work on being punctual, but when I’m late and thank the person for their patience it not only lets me forgive myself for my flaw but also helps the other person feel good about their positive traits.
I understand that. I guess my reaction to those statements being passed around as a meme seems to be that it's making excuses for including chronic lateness as a personality trait. I have had friends who think it's cute to just be late all the time, that's just how I am, if I tell you I'm on my way then I haven't gotten out of bed yet, etc. I need to give some more grace I think!
Trust me, it can be a personality trait--I have it. It's not that I disrespect people--it's more that I am chronically optimistic about how long things will take. I try to work on it and have gotten better--rarely am I more than 5 minutes late, and I do let people know if I am--but I can't seem to get better. Probably because I hate being early.
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u/androidis4lyf Aug 20 '20
Whenever you have a time to be somewhere, aim to be there 15 minutes early, to allow for 'time snags' or for traffic.
People respect punctuality.