February 27, 2023

In praise of being late: The upside of spurning the clock

NPR - Sure, there are situations where being punctual or even a little early is highly valuable and consequential. If you don't get to the airport gate before it closes, the plane leaves without you. If you're consistently late to work, you might lose your job. And when it's time for a rocket launch, every team member needs to be working in sync to get to BLASTOFF. But often, in other situations, there's room for give-and-take. Maybe your friends and family members need to chill and stop considering their perspective on punctuality to be clearly and in every way superior. "We've created this schema that somehow 'being on time' is evidence of how much you value something," says Irma McClaurin, an anthropologist, independent scholar and founder of the Black Feminist Archive, which is based at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Equating punctuality with high value is a shortsighted view of history and a narrow view of world cultures, she and other scholars say.

2 comments:

Greg Gerritt said...

I do not like people wasting my time. Waiting for late folks is a waste of time. I give them 15 minutes, then I leave.

Anonymous said...


Ok, I must admit that I didn't read this whole article.

Of course, when and how you appear at an event, no matter how large or small, timing and dress should reflect the occasion.

Respect is important. Opinion should be secondary.