Excuses for being late

[emanymton]

I was once walking to work along a very busy road into the city and traffic was being held up by a family of swans walking down the middle of the road. The 2 guys in the van right behind them thought it was hilarious (which it was), not sure those behing them would have. Most of those stuck would not have know why, but I wonder how many of those that did know got away with swans on the road as the reason for being late.

 

[friedaweed]

I'm a punctuality fiend and my wife is not so we only go to things together if it's something fun and doesn't matter or we really have to, when I try and fail to be relaxed about fucking about for ages when we should have left already.

My wife's always 15 minutes behind me in being ready so when we agree what time we're leaving I add that into the equation. I could get frustrated by her lack of concern for punctuality but I accepted that fact when we exchanged our vows. I find biting my lip or having smoke on the wall much better than falling out with her for keeping me and the rest of the world waiting for her arrival

 

[porp]

Not answering your question, and maybe this won't work for you and your situation.

But for the love of God, don't rush in breathless 3 minutes late. If your going to be late look like you own it. Give it a good 10 minutes or more, or if it's a meeting wait until the second item on the agenda is done with. Then no explanation unless asked for, then if needed an unapologetic explanation.

 

[killer b]

If you're regularly late no-one will believe whatever your excuse is anyway tbh, so don't bother putting any effort into it.

 

[Sue]

If it's a constant work issue though Orang Utan I'd explain to them the difficulties you have and be up front about it which would be better than them nailing you down for your punctuality and ending up in performance management proceedings. .

This. If you say stuff like this:

I think ‘because it’s January’ is an acceptable excuse for being late for work. ‘Because it’s January’ and ‘because of who I am as a person’ are perfectly reasonable reasons IMO
Also acceptable: ‘because I didn’t want to get out of bed’

you'll just end up pissing people off. (I mean while these ^ things may be true, saying you're late because you didn't want to get out of bed, for example, will go down like a cup of cold sick.)

 

[Petcha]

The last time I was late for work was down to an out of control horse on a country lane. The horse dismounted it's rider and I had no phone signal to let the people know I wasn't going to arrive on time or get help. I had to stop and help the poor lass as she was in a bit of a mess and the horse wasn't having any of my horse whispering technique "Good horse, be a good boy now". Thankfully she got him under control but when I turned up 45 minutes late to the meeting covered in mud an smelling of horse everyone just thought it was funny.

Fucking hell. That's gold. I'm nicking that.

 

[Petcha]

It's quite literally horse shit. I love the detail.

Covid is of course a go-to.

 

[lazythursday]

My current job very relaxed - we are only really expected to turn up physically on Mondays. The trains are so terrible in the north it's a permanent excuse for lateness. Though I generally have a policy of staying at home if a meeting starts before 9.30 as there's no way I'll make it - I'm just not prepared to get up earlier than my regular time any more. I'll be tired and grumpy and probably late anyway.

 

[Athos]

I can't stand lateness. It's just rude; like saying to someone their time isn't valuable. I've been known to lock habitual latecomers out of meetings at one minute past the due start time, and, in my private life, leave on time notwithstanding that means others e.g. miss a lift (though that's only to regular offenders, and usually with a warning). People soon get the message.

 

[MickiQ]

never apologise, never explain

^^This^^ Unless I'm ridiculously late (on the order of hours) I never apologise and even then I restrict myself to "Sorry I'm Late" Explanations which are usually the truth are only proferred if actually asked for.

 

[Yossarian]

I can't stand lateness. It's just rude; like saying to someone their time isn't valuable. I've been known to lock habitual latecomers out of meetings at one minute past the due start time, and, in my private life, leave on time notwithstanding that means others e.g. miss a lift (though that's only to regular offenders, and usually with a warning). People soon get the message.

You sound fun

 

[Athos]

You sound fun

Scheduled fun.

 

[Spymaster]

I can't stand lateness. It's just rude; like saying to someone their time isn't valuable. I've been known to lock habitual latecomers out of meetings at one minute past the due start time, and, in my private life, leave on time notwithstanding that means others e.g. miss a lift (though that's only to regular offenders, and usually with a warning). People soon get the message.

Often you'll also find that people who are habitually late have significant other character flaws as well. Negligence and generally incapability are often hallmarked by serial lateness.

 

[Athos]

Often you'll also find that people who are habitually late have significant other character flaws as well. Negligence and generally incapability are often hallmarked by serial lateness.

Yes, often.

 

[Petcha]

Often you'll also find that people who are habitually late have significant other character flaws as well. Negligence and generally incapability are often hallmarked by serial lateness.

I'm notoriously punctual amongst my mates and get shitty when they're late. It's just work that I'm always late for. I only found out just before Xmas I'm supposed to start at 8.30am. I thought it was 9.30am for the two years I've been there. But fuck em. Nobody mentioned it. I suppose the fact that everybody was already there when I came in should have tipped me off but it was never my intention. I work in an industry where 9.30 is considered early btw.

I hate people who aren't punctual. Also people who are early.

 

[contadino]

Crikey! Tough crowd.

I work at home, and have been late once this week, which I dismissed with a 'not yet sufficiently motivated' comment. It's not the end of the world being late once in a while.

 

[Yossarian]

I'm usually very punctual for anything I give a shit about but I'm not bothered about the differently punctual as long as they have redeeming features - sometimes the least punctual people are the ones most worth waiting for.

 

[Voley]

Nelson famously said that he put his success in life down to being routinely 15 minutes early. So punctuality is clearly the way forward if you aspire to dying by fatal gunshot wound at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

 

[killer b]

Mrs B is always on time for work, but late for anything leisure related, and she's very nice. My late bezzer was always late too, ironically enough. I must have some sort of late people magnetism thing going on. Anyway, it doesn't matter 99% of the time so who cares.

 

[Athos]

Nelson famously said that he put his success in life down to being routinely 15 minutes early. So punctuality is clearly the way forward if you aspire to dying by fatal gunshot wound at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

I'd have got there on 20th.

 

[Athos]

Mrs B is always on time for work, but late for anything leisure related, and she's very nice. My late bezzer was always late too, ironically enough. I must have some sort of late people magnetism thing going on. Anyway, it doesn't matter 99% of the time so who cares.

It only "doesn't matter" if you don't value your time, and you don't care that others don't either!

 

[Athos]

... sometimes the least punctual people are the ones most worth waiting for.

In my experience it's three exact opposite.

 

[Poot]

I was late to a (remote) court hearing last week when my work laptop refused to cooperate. I nearly died of embarrassment.

I am not often late, but when I am I make it count.

 

[killer b]

It only "doesn't matter" if you don't value your time, and you don't care that others don't either!

I dunno, if somone's persistently late I generally just adjust my own timings by the appropriate amount

 

[Spymaster]

I dunno, if somone's persistently late I generally just adjust my own timings by the appropriate amount

That's just weakness of character.

 

[killer b]

I could dump her I suppose, but it seems a bit extreme

 

[ElizabethofYork]

I'm pathologically punctual and get very annoyed by other peoples' lateness. I had a friend who was ALWAYS at least half an hour late to our meeting place, and even though I knew she'd be late I couldn't bring myself to be late myself. Don't know why, but being even a minute late makes me anxious and stressy.

 

[Yossarian]

In my experience it's three exact opposite.

-3?

 

[Spymaster]

I'm pathologically punctual and get very annoyed by other peoples' lateness. I had a friend who was ALWAYS at least half an hour late to our meeting place, and even though I knew she'd be late I couldn't bring myself to be late myself.

I just don't meet people like that anymore unless it's as part of a larger group, in which case I encourage everyone who was on time to start without the late person and let them sort themselves out. Not a big issue if it's just drinks but I enjoy it when the late twat feels put out that everyone else didn't wait and are half way through their starters when they bother to show up.

 

[Orang Utan]

They know about the ADHD? If they don't make allowances for you struggling to be somewhere at a particular time then that's not really on IMO - you shouldn't need to make excuses, flexible start time would be a better fit for you and strikes me as being a reasonable adjustment.

I’ve already been through that process twice - two work capability assessments and waiting for a third.

They don’t buy it as we are open to the public so have to be there on time to open.
They won’t even let me stay later to make up the late minutes even though they have a system they call Flexi (far from it - they just want us to come in earlier than our contracted hours to open up - their fault for making contracted staff shifts start at the same time we open). I don’t mind staying late when I’m late as there is time to do some work while no one is there to interrupt you, so it gets taken out of my leave, which I’m not happy about.