Plan B Forum

A colleague from Lismore commented to me that she prefers Lismore time to Canberra time.

Lismore time is usually around 30 minutes later than prescribed, whereas Canberra time is 10 minutes early. (This is the appropriate length of time to be ready for a meeting or appointment.).

I am a solid supporter of Canberra time. I even run any clock in my house that is not connected to a device 10 minutes fast just to make sure I turn up when required.

Do you live somewhere where time is not as it is given but what people have made it?

Perhaps you have been to Norway and they are fast only on days with an "S" in them or maybe you have never come across this phenomena?

Is it unique to Australia?

Yard arm time, for me, is the best.

That may be your favourite time, but you still operate on Canberra-time.

This was quite a few years ago, but they measured how different cultures measured 'late' for a meeting by comparing how they felt about people arriving late for a lunch get-together. The US was the least tolerant of people being late, I don't recall who was most tolerant but most other cultures considered + 20 min to be 'on time'. Germans, if I recall, were very fixated on being on time.

As someone who has a number of required weekly meeting I really hate it when people are not on time. It wastes the time of all those who were there and makes you repeat things.

yrs,
rubato

Precisely!

This is exactly why we have the running ten minutes fast Canberra-time. I used to think it was only my quirk until I discovered more and more of my colleagues also put the clocks forward by ten minutes to make sure they are never late for meetings.

I once worked with a hippy, who, and my student kept a chart on this, was not on time ONCE for anything arranged by her or for her in a period of three weeks.

Hippy-time!

I have it on good authority that there is even Lismore-Lebian time, which means if you turn up on the day of the meeting, you made it.

"Korean Time"

15 minutes late.

The people I really have a problem with are the "around" ones. You know the ones who when they have an appointment for say one pm they are likely to show up anytime between 12 and 2. They are annoyning. I personally am the type of person who is always at least 15 min. early.
And I am not a type A personality.

Being on time for a meeting/engagement/etc is a sign of being responsible to yourself and the people you are meeting with. Even when I was "half (or fully) in the bag" I was on time for anything I said I would be. My wife is always 10-15 minutes early. Heck, she gets up at 6am to make it to work at 9am and the drive is only 5 minutes with heavy traffic. I get up at 5:30am to get to work by 7am and my commute is 35 minutes (on average, forget rain/snow/sleet/hail/sunshine/fog/weather in general)

Thankfully I only have one meeting per week and so far everyone is there within 2 minutes of the time. Also, I have taken it upon myslef to use a stopwatch to see how long these things take to better schedule the future meetings.

I like being on time and do develope resentments (AA term) for people who are always late. Once or twice, not a problem, all the time, you won't be invited anymore. If you absolutely have to be there, then I will start without you and you can catch up or remain "in the dark and clueless" (which is what you are as shown by your lateness).

Personally, I believe that not showing up at an agreed upon time is being very disrespectful of the other person or people involved. But I know quite a few people that I can depend on showing up but always being late, so I plan accordingly.

Sometimes that involves not involving them...

I usually try to arrive within 5-10 on either side (depending on the occasion)

I know quite a few people that I can depend on showing up but always being late, so I plan accordingly.

So do I...

The Queen Mum, for example is always late, so we've learned that if we tell her the time to be somewhere is a half an hour earlier than it really is we can pretty much count on her only being 10-15 minutes late of the actual time...

I don't mind people being late or early, (except in business situations; in that case I am always on time barring something that couldn't be anticipated in advance, and I always expect other to do the same.) so long as they're consistent...

The ones who really drive me up a tree are the people who are all over the map...Sometimes early, sometimes late, sometimes on time, with no discernible pattern to plan for...

I'd really like to smack those people....