The thread in the nursing student forum about people who are always late got me thinking.
I am chronically early for everything. If I'm not 10 minutes early for an appointment, work, whatever, then I start to get anxiety. So I have a hard time relating to those who are temporally challenged. And I know that there are people who are ALWAYS late. I work with half a dozen providers, and one or two are like me (always there 15 minutes before start time), a couple get there right at start time, and there are 2 or 3 who are ALWAYS 10-20 minutes late for their first appointment of the session (and it drives me farking nuts, because the chronic late ones are my favorite providers and they ask me to go to lunch with them, and if I accept, then *I* will be late for my first appointment of the afternoon session, which is exactly what happened yesterday).
I know that sometimes it's just poor (or lack of) planning. But I've come to suspect that for some people, it's just part of their innate character, and that's what I want to try to understand better, so that I can better work with these people (and not show my intense annoyance). I really do think that sometimes, it's just beyond their control.
So for those of you who are temporally challenged, or love someone who is, help me understand what happens in their brains that make them this way, so I can be a more understanding coworker/supervisor.
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I am struck by the fatalistic attitudes of many here. "Well it's just who I am"....."IDK I guess that is how I am"......etc. Such a sense of powerlessness is surprising to me. When we work on our problems, we feel powerful, not hapless.
Wow! Who knew there was so much hatred out there for getting to work at 7:03 instead of 7:00?
I have honestly never had an issue with any colleague or manager and have worked at institutions where clocking in was allowed up to 5 mins after shift start with no penalty. I guess I chose right knowing my weakness.
I've also worked ER and ICU where report is short and start and end times for shifts overlap by 15 minutes. Is this not the norm? Oh well. Guess I'm managing my problems just fine.
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The nurse who walks in at 7:03 is still keeping her coworkers waiting because she will not be available to take report until she puts her things away, is given her assignment and gets organized. That mentality is incredibly selfish.
Just like a blind person cannot be an airline pilot, a person with no sense of time, whose prompt presence is required as to not affect someone else's time or money, should not be a floor nurse.
No matter the reason (and there is always some excuse) to be chronically late is extremely thoughtless and rude to everyone around you. Your 'disability' should not infringe on me.
I am struck by the fatalistic attitudes of many here. "Well it's just who I am"....."IDK I guess that is how I am"......etc. Such a sense of powerlessness is surprising to me. When we work on our problems, we feel powerful, not hapless.
That bothers me when I see it too. Not just on this issue, on so many. Most of us on the board live in the USA, and especially for citizens of our country, there is absolutely no excuse for a fatalistic attitude like that. You live in the freest country on earth. You have access to any information you want. Stop acting like you have no power.
Just like a blind person cannot be an airline pilot, a person with no sense of time, whose prompt presence is required as to not affect someone else's time or money, should not be a floor nurse.
No matter the reason (and there is always some excuse) to be chronically late is extremely thoughtless and rude to everyone around you. Your 'disability' should not infringe on me.
Yup, I agree. I would never be a floor nurse. I chose the nursing specialties that work for me and I chose to work in environments where exact punctuality is not essential. I am not selfish, I'm very aware of my weakness and work hard to minimize it. The judgement is rude because you have no idea what it's like to live with a brain that works differently. You just don't.
This thread was started with an honest question to try to understand people, yet it's become a bashing fest. Very non-nurse like in my opinion.
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That bothers me when I see it too. Not just on this issue, on so many. Most of us on the board live in the USA, and especially for citizens of our country, there is absolutely no excuse for a fatalistic attitude like that. You live in the freest country on earth. You have access to any information you want. Stop acting like you have no power.
Hmm... I don't think anyone has said they have no power or that they aren't actively working on fitting the nueronormal world. I was just answering a question on the background process. The OP was interested in learning.
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Klone, I appreciated your question and looking back I see you've gotten some good insight from people willing to share. I think lots of people who don't fit the mold go into nursing because one can find the right fit. I certainly have been very successful in my career and have been happy at most of my jobs. I've never been fired or reprimanded for anything despite being late sometimes.
Cheers!
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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Klone, I appreciated your question and looking back I see you've gotten some good insight from people willing to share.
I really have. I want to thank everyone who shared, in spite of being scolded, criticized and flamed. :) I truly just wanted to understand better. I even had a really good conversation about "presented-minded" vs. "future-minded" people with one of my "present-minded" colleagues this morning .
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I paid 200 dollars non refundable, to attend 8 am yoga classes at a site across from the hospital. I did not get to attend more than one or two due to a certain dayshift nurse who had adhd and a challenge with managing her time. Unlike her, I will not be rude and a disrupt another persons routine or a class in progress.
This is the reality of working with people who are chronically late. Whether you realize it or not, which is somehow even more disturbing, you are costing other people money and causing great inconvenience.
So again, I do not want to report you for having a disability but know that if you can not function well enough to get to work on time, your coworkers do resent you, even if they are too polite to say so.
You wouldn't be reporting her for having a disability; you'd be reporting her for chronic lateness which impacted YOUR after-work obligations.
Yup, I agree. I would never be a floor nurse. I chose the nursing specialties that work for me and I chose to work in environments where exact punctuality is not essential.
What specialties don't? I suppose if you are not relieving anyone, you may be able to justify a bit of leniency, but I've never had a job where I wasn't expected to be somewhere at a certain time.
Klone, looking at all the responses you have received as a whole/in the aggregate, the commonality I am seeing is that the people who were able to change somehow had a penalty (a real one) placed on the tardiness. You do not have the power to do that with the providers in your clinic and that would have to come from their superior.
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I am late to this thread....(punny)
My first job was with a major department store, where I started at the age of 17. They hired a lot of teenagers to work the floor as salespeople, but started getting complaints about everything from tardiness to boyfriends/girlfriends hanging out in the store to customers preferring more "mature" help. There was never a formal proclamation but very shortly it became obvious they were trying to get rid of the teenage employees. How did they do this? Simple. They developed a "no tolerance" policy for tardiness. Once was a verbal, twice written, three tardies and you were fired. Even one second over scheduled clock-in time counted as a tardy.
I was always taught the importance of being punctual and as such, in the beginning, I was rarely late. When I saw my coworkers, though, waltzing in anywhere from 3-30 minutes late, I got sloppy. I got one verbal warning, which mortified me. I was never late again. I was also the ONLY teenage employee in the ENTIRE STORE to not get fired. I learned a big lesson.
Fast-forward 20 years. I have had two children with cancer - one with a brain tumor, one with leukemia. The child who had leukemia passed away. After his death, as I worked through my grief and anxiety about the future, I became MUCH more present time focused. I have gone from someone who is always 15 minutes early to someone who actually does struggle with getting to work on time. I have fixed it and am never late now, but in the earliest years after he died I was late by 5-8 minutes frequently. I had never thought to connect the two until this thread. Very interesting.
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SmilingBluEyes
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I am struck by the fatalistic attitudes of many here. "Well it's just who I am"....."IDK I guess that is how I am"......etc. Such a sense of powerlessness is surprising to me. When we work on our problems, we feel powerful, not hapless.