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No, you are not "running late", you are rude & selfish

gregsavage.com.au

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Re: No, you are not "running late", you are rude & selfish

#21

Post by kranner »

elbenshira wrote: post #7

Interestingly, this is mostly an American (and a also a Western) problem. In most of the world (South America, Middle East, Africa, East Asia, etc), "on time" ranges anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours later. We grade our personal productivity level much more than other cultures. Other cultures value other things such as community and relationships at a higher level than we do. A story: I was invited to an Indian…

Being Indian, I have to take a little offense at the generalization.

It isn't all of us. I'm never casually late for an appointment, and am always annoyed if the other party is, beyond the reasonable 10 minutes. And this is not because of any incipient effect of Western culture.

Please stop with the generalizing about pan-cultural differences in the perceived value of productivity, community, etc. Neither does an anecdote about a birthday party generalize to business situations.

Re: No, you are not "running late", you are rude & selfish

#22

Post by btilly »

I'm reminded of a talk at a medical conference about patient interaction.

The talk was scheduled. People showed up. No speaker was visible. The doors closed. People sat there. Finally someone got unhappy enough to leave. Discovered that the doors were locked. Soon the whole room was up in arms.

Then the speaker got up from the first row, went to the stage, and said, "I did this because no words are as effective as demonstrating the point. Yes, you are all busy people. But your patients are busy people as well. Many bill hourly so time is literally money to them. So don't waste their time and money by being late."

Re: No, you are not "running late", you are rude & selfish

#24

Post by zalew »

elbenshira wrote: post #7

Interestingly, this is mostly an American (and a also a Western) problem. In most of the world (South America, Middle East, Africa, East Asia, etc), "on time" ranges anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours later. We grade our personal productivity level much more than other cultures. Other cultures value other things such as community and relationships at a higher level than we do. A story: I was invited to an Indian…

That's true. When I've lived in Brasil, we were invited to a party for 7pm and if you came at 0730 you'd see the hosts wandering around in robes, comming about 2hrs late was the appropriate thing to do.

It all depends on the local culture. In Poland, besides business meetings, there's a 15 minutes space, only after that it's considered being late; and yes, in big cities we're also all into that western 'being always in a hurry' thing (which I personally don't like).

Re: No, you are not "running late", you are rude & selfish

#27

Post by patio11 »

elbenshira wrote: post #7

Interestingly, this is mostly an American (and a also a Western) problem. In most of the world (South America, Middle East, Africa, East Asia, etc), "on time" ranges anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours later. We grade our personal productivity level much more than other cultures. Other cultures value other things such as community and relationships at a higher level than we do. A story: I was invited to an Indian…

Don't compare "East Asians" disfavorably to American punctuality within earshot of a Japanese salaryman.

The line beginning with "other cultures" is untestable horsepuckey reminiscent of the absolute worst tripe in American multicultural studies. And I have a degree in that. It survives only because it flatters the preconceptions of an Ameican subculture in academia who prefers to have a ready critique of Western culture, as if such a thing existed.

Re: No, you are not "running late", you are rude & selfish

#30

Post by Zev »

_delirium wrote: post #13
megablast wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A party might be a different thing, but when you are meeting one or two people, the expectation is that they will not leave you standing around on your own for any length of time. This is a sign of bad time management on top of rudeness. I have known people who were continually late, so I would always tell them 30 minutes before I get there. Effective technique. Things were worse before mobiles of course, I would wai…

I dunno, in much of southern Europe it's certainly not expected that people will be there to the minute even for one-on-one meetings. Probably not an hour late in that case, but I don't think anybody would bat an eye if you had planned to meet at a coffee shop at 2:00 and someone showed up at 2:15. You'd just get a coffee and read a book or the paper or something. (Being exactly on time, and being angry if someone's…

15 minutes in a coffee shop is one thing. 45 minutes in an office is another.
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