Happy October!
Meeting deadlines is important. I’ve always taken pride in setting realistic deadlines at work and meeting them. I think your credibility is on the line if you tell people you’ll do something by a certain time and don’t deliver. I’ve lived by that belief my entire adult life.
To my mind, a huge part of showing up on time is meeting deadlines, getting to appointments on time, and not making friends and business associates wait for you. That’s showing respect for yourself and others because respect, like most human interactions, is a two way street.
Showing up on time is not, however, living by a clock for the sake of the clock. If you like arriving early and leaving early, that’s cool as long as you get your work done and you haven’t walked out of an important meeting. Similarly, arriving late and leaving late is cool. Flex time has gone a long way to improving the lives of most professionals in this country because it says “I don’t care what clock you keep as long as you keep us informed and get the work done because I respect you and trust your professionalism.
Trust, respect, flexibility and independence of action and thought are far too important for me to give them up easily. Working for the man hasn’t changed that fact. Showing up on time is not living by the clock. I’ve been fortunate that most of my employers over the years have not been clock watchers. Those few who lived this way made me feel completely untrusted, disrespected and controlled. I generally do my best to get out of those situations quickly because I spend most of the time fighting the clock and trying to conceal my anger over being controlled.
Yes, I’m a rebel at heart. Most writers probably are. Our minds go so many places, we don’t want to be constrained by conventions that others find comforting.
But I still meet deadlines at work. I’ll get to the necessity of reasonable deadlines in another post.
Happy Friday.
