The art of being late… ⏰
Who as that one friend or colleague who is always late? Probably this is you? Hope not!!
The so-called time management was in the past one of the most spoken topics in the RH world. I remember learning about this in seminars and workshops, on the importance of being organized and prioritize tasks as well as knowing about the meaning of getting earlier to an appointment and meet deadlines.
Being late continues to be a common practice in the professional world. Now that we are working from home we don’t see anymore, candidates who run late for interviews or colleagues who arrive late in the morning to the office. Instead, we must deal with delays on Zoom calls or MS Teams meetings…
The most common sentence I heard this year was: “Sorry for the delay I was having trouble in joining the call”. Of course, this was combined with the typical: “You are muted!”. Technologies are so so tricky…
Of course that we need to understand where is the origin of the delay. Sometimes unforeseen events happen, even though we prepare for getting on time (it’s just the world testing us). For example, like having a break in the internet, a power outage or something else beyond our control.
Being late is not a thing from now. But with the emergence of other events it started to cease to be a concern or not to be given so much importance. However, for some people (like me) arriving on time means empathy and respect. Since our delay may affect the commitments of others, we are not showing consideration for them as well as show a bad image of ours. Finally, because I really believe that behavior breeds behavior.
As advice for the times we live in now, I want to leave you with some advices on how you can have everything ready to start an interview, meeting or other online event on time:
» Don’t use the snooze bottom and wake up with the enough time to get a shower, eat and get dressed;
» Always prepare your day in the morning;
» Use your email calendar or your phone alarm system;
» Test your internet connection was well as microphone, sound and light of the room;
» Do the effort of end a meeting on time so that you can start others on time;
» Is it 5 minutes later considered being late? Yes!! Respect the time because it is our biggest challenge to live a life with a purpose.
Do you practice the art of being late? No? Excellent!! What kind of things you do for getting on time to your appointments?
