(Fill in the Blank) Standard Time

[kokopelle]

I have a few 'perfectionist' streaks. One is about starting something on time, and because of this I expect a meeting to start when it is scheduled. This is the norm at my company location, but this does not seem to be true at the corporate headquarters. There a meeting time of 9:00 really means 9:15 as people meander in as they want. Ack!

The title of this blog comes from the sayings "pagan standard time" and "Indian standard time". These are "funny" ways of saying that an event never REALLY starts when it is scheduled. Time becomes akin to the country mile. It is called a mile, but who knows how far down the road the destination really is? Ditto on the standard time thing. I've lost count of how many rituals were supposed to start at "sundown" and instead began closer to midnight than the hour of sunset.

While I may be harboring a degree of perfectionist unrealism, I find the behavior of grossly deviating from a stated schedule to be unprofessional and disrespectful. In the case of work, the majority of offenders at the corporate location are mid to upper band professionals/executives. Yeah, they are busy, but so is everyone invited to the meetings. Being where you said you would be, when you said you would be there, is a mark of the work ethic held by a person. Leadership is best accomplished by example.

I find the "(fill in your spiritual path) standard time" to be even more disturbing. First, the deviations from schedule are measured in hours instead of quarters of an hour. The events derailed are often spiritual in nature, with the intent of worship/honoring the deities both in and outside of ourselves. The need to postpone a stated starting time disrespects multiple aspects of the spiritual. Sometimes a starting time has a symbolic meaning, such as starting a ritual at sunset... let's say 6:30 PM (for example!). What is being "said" to the spiritual world when the ritual instead starts at 8:30 PM? Come on guys. And then there is the "hurry up and wait" factor. We honor those who organize and conduct the rituals/events, but there should be a reciprocal respect for our time as well.

$.02 in the perfectionist jar... from somebody who gets to meetings early most of the time.

Comments

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Most of the meetings at my work are teleconferences due to our highly distributed workforce, but I gotta say, here, promptness is expected, and honest to Pete, anyone dialing in ONE MINUTE past the time the meeting is supposed to start is expected to apologize, and it is a rare meeting that will not start right on the dot, so latecomers miss the first bits.

I enjoy that. ;)

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Oh, that makes sense too. We usually don't have meetings that start before 10. In fact, for us East Coasters we usually don't start before noon because we usually have people in Mountain and/or Pacific time zones who need to be on the meetings as well.

Unfortunately, the Mountain/Pacific folks are not quite as sensitive about scheduling meetings, so they occasionally will schedule something for 3 or 4 PM their time... :D

But yeah, most of the telecommuting jobs here have flexible hours and each boss kind of sets his or her own rules. My current boss wants us all on by 9 and on until at least 3, so we can work from 6 AM to 3 PM with an hour lunch, or work from 9 AM to 5 PM with no lunch, or whatever, and change day to day, or work 9 hours one day and 7 the next, that kind of thing.

[(Anonymous)]

wants us all on by 9 much easier if you don't have to dress or go anywhere. And I suppose not taking "lunch" doesn't matter because you can eat while you work. (Just as I don't want tired and cranky staff I also don't want hungry and hypoglycemic staff so I forbid people to skip lunch, since they can't eat at their desks.)

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

That's cool. And yes, on by 9 is quite easy for telecommuters. :)

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

Best jobs I ever had were on flex time. My circadian rhythms are pretty much set on second shift, and while getting up at nine still sucks, it helps. (Though I still generally had an hour to an hour and a half of bus commuting each way.)

[greensh.livejournal.com]

I get to work sometime between 6:30 and 7:00 AM most days, and that's after driving forty minutes. The work day here officially starts at 8:00. The extra time does several things for me... I can be flexible with my lunch and I can leave work at 4:30 PM and beat the local traffic.

I believe that arriving and leaving times are between the employee and their supervisor. I also believe that a supervisor who abuses the time clock sets a bad example for their employees, and looses leverage when the supervisor has to discipline regarding the clock.

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

*nods* The pagan standard time bothers me a bit, too. I generally roll with it if I'm giving a workshop or something, but I try to be punctual.