Tardiness

OK, so this is a bit of a rant about something that really annoys me. If you are going to make an appointment with me or arrange to meet me or basically say "be here at this time" then don't be late!

If you are late then you are stealing my time. If you are meeting with a group of people and you are late, then you are stealing time from all of them.

Now I realise that there are valid reasons for being late ... life happens. However when it is something within your control then you are making a value judgement that whatever it is that "prevents" you from being on time is more important than those with whom you are meeting.

A simple of rule of thumb I use: time is money (in reality it's worth a lot more) so assume you are paying everyone with whom you are meeting eg I'm meeting with 12 people, I'm going to be 5 minutes late therefore I should be willing to pay 12x5min = 1 hour of their time. I generally use $150/hour as the benchmark (mainly because of my profession). So the big question is: Is the reason I'm going to be 5 minutes late worth $150? Sometimes it is but it's not often when it has a monetary cost associated with it.

So if you are late, aside from genuine unforeseeable problems, then be willing to pay the price of my (and other people's) time.