Change the world by turning up 30 mins early
January 19, 2008 by Ruthie
Grateful thanks to Dan for this mention, and for reminding me of my intention to write some posts about how small changes to your life can make a big difference to your career and your general happiness. (Plus if I write enough tenets I’ll be able to start my own religion and retire early.)
Ruthie, like everyone else in any kind of professional role, has to travel to lots of meetings and attend court. Being an alpha female type, every second counts, therefore nothing used to irritate Ruthie more than getting to places early and having to hang about. However nothing is more stressful than arriving late, thus Ruthie found herself constantly striving in an imperfect world to arrive exactly on time.
It occurred to Ruthie recently that she reads fewer novels than she did when she was a student travelling on the Tube. Thus Ruthie was struck by a solution to her dilemna. Time spent waiting can be profitably filled with Dickens or HST, and is suddenly made bearable. Ruthie also notes that the ipod gizmo she was given for Christmas seems to have an ebook function so War and Peace is now the size of a credit card.
You’ll be amazed what you can learn by turning up early, about the business you are visiting and the people you are going to meet. Chat to the receptionist/the clerk/the cleaner. These people are a fountain of information and you will make their day by being pleasant and polite. If you are the kind of person who adjusts their arrival time in accordance to the perceived importance of the person you are visiting: back to the reprogramming facility with you.
Try this for a month and see how your life changes for the better:
1. Make a point of arriving at all appointments 30 mins early.
2. Take a book you really enjoy to read.
3. Smile, make polite conversation with whoever you happen to meet.
Not only will you arrive at all your meetings unstressed, you will read a lot of books you hadn’t got around to reading and maybe also make some more friends. You’ll certainly make a positive impression.
Last week as part of my karma-negative job I approved for insurance purposes the sacking of some poor girl who’d been in the job three months but who had overslept one morning and been forty minutes late into work. Appalling. Legal, but appalling. So yes, always get there thirty minutes early, because you never know what the reaction will be if you’re late.
Being late is stressful, I know because I do it often. And why is that if I oversleep thirty minutes past my alarm, I get where I’m going ten minutes sooner than if I’d got up when I was supposed to (but a bit scruffier)? Well?
HST? The Hubble Space Telescope? Well I suppose it is best to keep fear and loathing at a distance…
If its any consolation to you I suspect that any employer who sacks an employee for being 40 mins late one day, clearly wanted to be rid of her and would have found some reason to sack her one way or another very soon.
My morning is orgnised around the Today programme. It’s hard to sleep through it as I am invariably incensed by the comments made and start shouting and throwing things at the radio. So: radio on at 7 wash then back upstairs in time for Thought for the Day. If I miss Thought for the Day, I know I’m running behind schedule.
Oh and some free advice: start looking for a new job.
No-one ever satisfies that particular employer, he has an MO - together with being in an industry where he can get away with it and still find enough recruits.
The job’s actually quite good, for every pillock like him there’s a business you can sort out and help succeed while keeping (mostly) everyone happy. Employment work is a bit like family work - whichever side you support the other thinks you’re the shit on their heel, whereas in fact the majority just need their heads knocking together. PLUS the job’s great as I could (were I awake in time) get in the WHOLE of Today before I need even get out of bed.