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| Feb 09, 2009 4:30 pm |
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re: Organization Tuesday: The Late Business Consortium Solopreneur |
Julie Bestry
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Since I asked everyone else, I should be openly, neurotically honest, too:
1) If I'm waiting for someone else at a distant location, I get agitated
if the other person is more than five-ten minutes late
(without calling). Well, to be honest, I get agitated if the
person isn't at least exactly on time, because I'm left wondering if
I'm actually in the right place, if the other person has forgotten the
appointment and so on. As a professional organizer, I intellectually know
that people are late for reasons rarely having to do with power plays
or believing their time is more valuable than mine. As a
human being, however, I'm fallible, and thus annoyed.
2) I don't believe it's ever acceptable for me to be late,
so I'm always early/on time. (Hate me now.) Given
the unique relationship a professional organizer has with time, my
credibility would be even more adversely impacted by tardiness than the
average Joe. If I am not within 10 minutes of my location by
15 minutes before the appointed time, I call. (Cell phones
have eliminated anyone's excuse for being late without notification.)
3) I'm much more lenient when it comes to someone being late to
meet me at my home/office because it does not adversely
affect my productivity. I'll still worry that the person is
lost, lying in a ditch or has forgotten, but less so than if I've had
to travel to meet them, because my surroundings are more comfortable
and able to distract me. Tardiness for teleclasses and online
meetings depends on whether I'm the speaker and whether the moderator
has turned off those annoying "be-boop" noises that ding every time new
person arrives on the call. (It's the aural equivalent to
having people enter a movie theater after the film has started and wind
their way to a center seat.)
4) I'm slightly more annoyed when a professional makes me wait, because they have daily experience with how frustrating that is. If a mom of 3 is late because her life has exploded, I have more sympathy than if a professional has kept me waiting. However, I think there's also an element of how open I can be. I can call my friend's cell and say "You're late and this is not working for me", but being the cranky to the office staff of a professional you're waiting to met just makes you look all the worse.
5) Again, I'm torn between intellectual and emotional response, because
I don't want to seem like a robot to all of you. But being
late, even if it's not intended to do so, says to the other person,
"your time isn't valuable enough to me to moderate my
behaviors so that I can show you respect". So, over
the next weeks, I'll share with you my advice so that your
current and future clients, friends and family can know that you do
value their time as much as your own.
--
Julie Bestry, Certified Professional Organizer®
Best Results Organizing
"Don't apologize. Organize!"
organize@juliebestry.com
Visit http://www.juliebestry.com to sign up for Best Results For Busy
People: Organizing Your Modern World, a newsletter
to help you save time and money, reduce stress and increase
your productivity
Private Reply to Julie Bestry (new win) |
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