Are people in your country also always late

[Cinnamoroll]

I'm from South America and here we have a culture of lateness which I'm pretty acostumed to lol. If you go to a doctor's office, for instance, it is normal to wait at least one hour

Unfortunately it seems like having to wait a long time at the doctor’s office is synonymous with many countries 😅😅😅
I wish it wasn’t that way, though. Everyone’s time is valuable, but it’s hard when primary care doctors are so overworked and have so many patients. We can all hope that one day a doctors office visit won’t take multiple hours 😅

[xmilo]

Unfortunately it seems like having to wait a long time at the doctor’s office is synonymous with many countries 😅😅😅
I wish it wasn’t that way, though. Everyone’s time is valuable, but it’s hard when primary care doctors are so overworked and have so many patients. We can all hope that one day a doctors office visit won’t take multiple hours 😅

yeah i agree, the long wait times at the doctor's seems to be consistent across various countries.

somehow im inclined to think that being late is closely linked to one's character, less so of being tied to country. although there have been nothing but praise for the punctuality of Japan trains (and people?)

[Uma]

Good question, I think in my country it depends on the place/situation.

When I was at university, depending on the subject - students were either religiously late or they were 10 minutes early or else they'd be locked out.
Same with companies, in my current company:
- On time = too Early
- Late = on time
Whereas my previous company, they'd be joking up sending you to HR if you were even a few mins late (... yes a cultural problem, this place had..)

[Lilac Tentacles]

Japan is hyper on-time with trains and buses. I love it. Everyone I need to meet is exactly where they are supposed to be when they tell me to meet them. Now, if I could get my American friends to figure their lives out, that would be great. Everyone personally in my life is chronically late and it makes me insane. I have no past trauma about being on time or any reason really to be upset, except that it feels like they don't value my time and we have such a short amount of it on this Earth. I hate when I'm waiting. It feels disrespectful.

I was told when I had baby that I'd be late constantly so "stop being so rigid". Ha. I'm even more early now. We're militant about our schedule when meeting with people. Both my hubs and I hate being late to anything. It just feels rude.

[phantasia]

Japan is hyper on-time with trains and buses. I love it. Everyone I need to meet is exactly where they are supposed to be when they tell me to meet them. Now, if I could get my American friends to figure their lives out, that would be great. Everyone personally in my life is chronically late and it makes me insane. I have no past trauma about being on time or any reason really to be upset, except that it feels like they don't value my time and we have such a short amount of it on this Earth. I hate when I'm waiting. It feels disrespectful.

I was told when I had baby that I'd be late constantly so "stop being so rigid". Ha. I'm even more early now. We're militant about our schedule when meeting with people. Both my hubs and I hate being late to anything. It just feels rude.

Sounds like I would really like Japan
I also feels that being late is very disrespectful. It gives me the feeling that that person feels that their time is more valuable than your. I mean since no one ever really knows how much time they get on earth everyone's should be respectful to each other and encourage maximum time management

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Good question, I think in my country it depends on the place/situation.

When I was at university, depending on the subject - students were either religiously late or they were 10 minutes early or else they'd be locked out.
Same with companies, in my current company:
- On time = too Early
- Late = on time
Whereas my previous company, they'd be joking up sending you to HR if you were even a few mins late (... yes a cultural problem, this place had..)

It makes me angry when people here in South Africa say being late is there culture. Specially since I know for a fact that older people tend to get just frustrated when the younger generations are so late. I feel culture is created by norms set by prevois generations ?

[master4you2]

Here in the great lakes it feels like a per region issue, I've got sections of family that have impeccable timing and sections that you have to tell them that an event starts 2 hours before it does.

[Infected]

In India people are so late that we actually take that into account. If you're invited to a party at 8pm you go at 10, if you have a business meeting at 3pm it won't start until atleast 3:30. It's become normal to be late.

[goodnightmoon]

I'm in the US so, y'know, a bunch of small countries under one large country façade.

I will say to this though, that I have lived in two different regions of the US: Southeast and Northeast, both of which were very very different. The Northeast was extremely forgiving for lateness (I lived in a large city with big public transportation, and almost everyone understood that public transit might create a bit of lateness). But the people I met that grew up there were some of the worst when it came to punctuality. I could never rely on them to bother to try to be anywhere on time, which at times felt annoying. In the Southeast, there was far less tolerance for lateness. Physicians appointments, dates, even restaurant reservations were extremely strict on time.

I'm sure it has a lot to do with both regional and city-based experiences but I think the overall culture of the area has a ton to do with punctuality.

[Kibba]

Oh yes! Except when you're going to the airport, I'd be there 4 hours early xD

It's like, If you have a party at 8, expect people to arrive by 9 and 10 hahaha

[♥ Harvest Goddess ♥]

I am in the US and I've lived in Socal - Chicago - Florida

Socal always seemed to be timely, the buses, public transport? All of it seemed on time, I never had to worry about being late, because I was always early.

In Chicago I was a bit younger so I didn't notice it much

Florida however, is a different beast? I've had buses just not show up, even when they said they would. I've had to adjust my schedule to leave an hour or so earlier so if something goes wrong I am not late, it's overall stressful? Also people I meet up with here have no concept of time?

They'll set time and I'll be there and they'll text "Oh I'm on my way" and it's frustrating but something I'm mostly used too now.