today's thing I don't understand: being "on time"

[rudeguy]

What exactly is on time?

If I'm supposed to be somewhere at 1pm and I arrive at 1pm, I'm getting there at the last minute.
If I arrive at 12:50 I'm early
If I arrive at 1:01 I'm late.

Having never understood this, I'm always a half hour early. I have an almost OCD fear of being late. I never rush though, I just leave way early.

So...what is "on time"?

 

[sjwaste]

I try to give myself a 10-15 minute buffer for most appointments. I don't like being late and I tend to plan (when I plan) in 30 minute increments, so I'm often early.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Getting to an appointment thirty minutes early is rude too; people structure their day around appointments, and if they have to find some way to entertain you for half an hour while they could be doing productive things, you're throwing off the flow of their day. 5-10 minutes is a good buffer, 15-20 if it's your first time meeting someone (like a job interview or whatnot).

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

In the Air Force, they say if you're on time you're late and should arrive 15 minutes early to everything. This gets very annoying when someone giving out a time accounts for 15 minutes early so you end up showing up 30 minutes early instead or even worse if it compounds and multiple people push the start time 15 minutes each time they pass it to the next person.

 

[IronWing]

My thought is that you should be ready to do whatever is planned at the specified time. So if a meeting is at 1pm you should be there, have your coffee in hand, have already visited the restroom, peeled off the outer layers of clothing, have your papers together, and be ready to meet. If a funeral is planned at 1pm, you should be shovel-ready at 1pm.

 

[Imp]

Maybe that explains why I've been late my entire life...

 

[lxskllr]

It varies by circumstance. If it's time constrained in some way, where being late would ruin he day, I aim for 1/2 hour early. That allows room for shit to happen, and I can hang around outside, or otherwise make myself busy if I'm too early. Other things, I aim for 10 minutes early. My goal is to not hold things up for other people. For other people coming to me, I'm very flexible, excepting the day ruination noted above. A one hour window around the stated time is fine.

 

[BoomerD]

For the construction jobs I worked most of my life, if you weren't at least 15 minutes early...you were late. It was rare for me to be less than 30 minutes early.
For things like doctor's appointments, job interviews, and other appointments, I'm usually 10 minutes early. TOO early is rude to the other person.

Better late than never? Nope...better never than late.

 

[IronWing]

For meeting at remote job sites, plus or minus and hour is forgivable. One party or another invariably fails to understand what is meant by "the road is pretty rough".

 

[JulesMaximus]

I'm always fashionably late to meetings. It's an endearing quality.

 

[Miramonti]

Early = on time, however on time is not always = early

On time refers to being there why you should, regardless if you were there earlier as well.

 

[rudeguy]

For the construction jobs I worked most of my life, if you weren't at least 15 minutes early...you were late. It was rare for me to be less than 30 minutes early.
For things like doctor's appointments, job interviews, and other appointments, I'm usually 10 minutes early. TOO early is rude to the other person.

Better late than never? Nope...better never than late.

That's the other part to this. I've always worked jobs that encouraged you to be there early. The bulk of my life I had two jobs: pizza shop manager and salesman at an electronics/appliance store. Neither one of those were technically hourly jobs. The sales job I usually showed up a half hour early every day. That gave me time to make coffee, count the money, check stock and recover from the previous night before anyone was there to bother me.

The pizza job was usually 15 minutes early. But that was only because there wasn't much to do first thing. In the hour and 15 minutes I had before the store opened, all I had to do was turn on the ovens (they took a good 45 minutes to heat up) and count money. I would take a walk through the store to make sure everything was ready, but the night crew did an awesome job of setting me up.

Now my current job is all about "wage and hour". I'm not supposed to touch my keyboard before the exact minute of my scheduled start time. I also can't log in more than 5 minutes late. That's too narrow of a window for my taste but I don't get to decide all that.

 

[Paul98]

Depends on what it is, job interview, meeting, yeah you want to get there early so that you are ready to get going on time. Party getting there early or on time is usually way too early.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Now my current job is all about "wage and hour". I'm not supposed to touch my keyboard before the exact minute of my scheduled start time. I also can't log in more than 5 minutes late. That's too narrow of a window for my taste but I don't get to decide all that.

So basically you get there 20 minutes early just in case, and then stare at the wall until 8:59 AM?

 

[CPA]

If you're supposed to be somewhere at 1pm and you arrive at 1pm, then you are "on time". Yes, it's also the last minute, but it's also on time.

 

[rudeguy]

So basically you get there 20 minutes early just in case, and then stare at the wall until 8:59 AM?

I can pass a lot of time playing with my phone. When I get to work I normally finish whatever podcast I'm listening to, maybe jam to some 80's pop music until 15 minutes before my start time. Then I walk the long way to the door. I figure I need the exercise and it passes time. I then put my stuff at my desk to claim it for the day and head to the break room. I grab a cup of coffee and usually bullshit with someone for a while. Then I head to my desk and usually find someone to bullshit with some more. Then I usually only have a couple minutes to kill, so I'll grab some wipeys and clean my keyboard, mouse and the buttons on my phone. Then I log into all the programs I use and have another 5-15 minutes to kill depending on how many updates download and install. If it takes more than 5 minutes, everyone usually starts bullshitting again, dragging the process out for an extra few minutes. Then I go live and start talking to people.

Wash, rinse, repeat as necessary

 

[waggy]

IF i gotta be there at 1 i get to the place at 12:45-50.

 

[KeithP]

If you're supposed to be somewhere at 1pm and you arrive at 1pm, then you are "on time". Yes, it's also the last minute, but it's also on time.

Winner.

-KeithP

 

[Fingolfin269]

I guess it depends on what you're talking about. If I'm going to a meeting at work I try to get there a few minutes early. But I actually get to work 1 to 1.5 hours early in the morning. There are a few reasons for that:

1) I know for a fact this is noticed where I work (not true for every workplace of course).
2) It's easier to get stuff done before everyone else is there.
3) I don't ever want to be late. Hell if I get to work 30 minutes early now I feel late.

 

[Doppel]

This is not so hard. If you're there @ 1:00 you're on time.

 

[mmntech]

I've always had this OCD thing about showing up early. Even now I'm usually at the office before everyone else gets there. Since I don't have a key to the store, I just chill in my car before the day starts.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

It depends on the business or purpose really. In the food business, you need to be ready to start work at the specific time. That usually means getting set up 10 to 15 minutes earlier.

 

[Fritzo]

I'm chronically 5 minutes late to everything. It works for me though.

 

[Gintaras]

What exactly is on time?



So...what is "on time"?

Time doesn't exist. It's just human imagination.
If time did exist, it should be the same everywhere - New Zealand or New York.
Can it be, that some live in the future and some in the past? just think for yourself....
February 29th? Did time got somehow f8cked up?
Anyone born on 2/29 should skip 3 birthdays every 4 "human years"?

 

[Red Squirrel]

My new job pushes for getting there early. I find this super hard especially for the 7:00am shift. It's already freaking early, trying to get there even earlier is crazy. I'm not a morning person. But I deal with it. I try to aim for 15 minutes early. At my last job I was always right on time or a few minutes late. We were the first to arrive on site so it did not really matter.

Really I never got the huge deal with being on time. to me if you're late then you should just work that many minutes later, and everyone should be happy, but it's not how it works.