Wednesday, March 28, 2012

I Will Not Comply with Your Time Management (Courtesy) Issues

There is an increasing pattern developing in our society regarding time management and courtesy. I was raised to be on time. If something started at 10 o'clock, I was there at 9 o'clock and 55 minutes, or maybe even a little sooner. Never on the dot, never a second later. That would be a direct insult to my host. Callous disregard.

More and more today compulsive tardiness is becoming the norm. I don't like it.

When we were in school back in the good ol' days, tardiness meant trouble. If you didn't have a slip of paper with a bona vide excuse on it, look out buster. You may spend some time in the principal's office, or get a note sent home to your parents. There were consequences.

If you showed up late for work you were either given a warning, had your pay docked, or maybe even given the boot. It wasn't funny. It wasn't amusing.

I have sat in meetings where people routinely show up 15 or 20 minutes late. People like supervisors, old enough to know better. And oh lord there are the committees. It seems being part of a group gives the sense that one can slink out of all responsibility, as if no one else would notice. Don't show up? No problem. Don't join the conference call? No big deal.

Then there is email, fast as lightening and slower than watching paint dry. If the email you spent half an hour writing doesn't get a response by day one it is probably making its way down the recipient's endless inbox email list, soon to go to page 2, page 3, page 4, never to be seen again. Lost in the ethernet. Meanwhile, the sender is impatiently waiting for a reply that never comes.

Oh, and the wonderful invention of call waiting. How many time have you been talking to someone about something important, when they abruptly cut you off and say "Hang on I have another call coming in, just a sec."  You wait three minutes, five minutes. They never come back. You hang up. They MAY call you back and say, "Sorry 'bout that, it was so and so". You want to wrap the phone cord around their neck but then you remember cell phones don't have phone cords. In fact the person you are talking to probably wouldn't know a phone cord if it WAS wrapped around their neck.

Can someone please tell me what is going on?

This lack of courtesy and time management gives me a headache. It gives me road rage when I am not even driving. It makes me want to enter the wilderness and never return. Although I always feel like that.

I am too old for this. It is my time to start smelling the roses, run a stick down a picket fence, spit on the sidewalk, wear purple. Not deal with folks who could care less about the fact others have a life, too. It raises my hackles and I don't like it.

On the news last night I saw a woman protesting at the Supreme Court, she apparently doesn't approve of health care for all. Her sign said "I will not comply". I like that. In fact I have been saying that's how I will respond to the wacky conservative proposals floating around the U.S. of A.

I will not comply is also very fitting in dealing with time management (courtesy issues). So from here on out it is my new strategy, my new policy, effective immediately:

1. If you put me on call waiting I will not comply. I will hang up and never answer your calls again.

2. If you are late for an appointment, I will not comply. The door will be locked, the car will be gone, the ship will have sailed. You will not be invited back. Unless you have a slip from you parents or your doctor excusing your bad behavior. You will be sent to the principal's office, or sit in a chair in the hallway to have time to think about why it is impolite to be late.

3. If you do not respond to my email or phone calls in a timely fashion, I will not comply. You will first be reminded of the value of remaining in my life. Second offenses will lead to severe consequences, including but not limited to temporary removal from all contact lists. I use the  three strikes and your out rule on this one.

Ah, I feel better already.

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