RUNNING LATE

We all know the phrase “So much to do, so little time” – now overused, in various versions, on status updates on social networking sites – or the ever-popular “Time is money”. Well, if that is true, we would have lost millions by now. No, make that trillions. Maggie Tiojakin tries to keep apace of chronic lateness.

In Ecuador, tardiness was reported to have cost the nation no less than US$ 2.5 billion a year, a sobering fact that compelled its government to launch a campaign aimed at changing the habit of millions. Aptly named the punctuality campaign, it was signed off on by the then president Lucio Gutiérrez, himself notorious for being unpunctual (including showing up three hours late for interviews).

Six years on, there is no conclusive study on the success of the campaign, although it is said Ecuadoreans have raised their own productivity by learning to appreciate each other’s time.

Of course, in some cultures, where time is an elusive concept, tardiness is not only tolerated, it is often expected. Take the Spanish and their afternoon siesta, for example. Indonesians are no different: We have our impossible traffic and our “rubber time” excuses. One of a myriad online guides geared toward understanding Indonesian society advises foreigners to “be patient with tardiness and imprecision … it is common [for Indonesians] to be unpunctual in meeting, dating and in starting an event.”

You may yawn at this, or even shake your fist and scream in frustration, but if you think this isn’t true, you must be in for a serious reality check. But that’s not all the guidebook has to say. “Try to be punctual, though,” it warns. “Because if you are late, in the future [Indonesians] will be later than you. Punctuality and technical precision require a lengthy learning process.”

All around the world, tardiness remains an issue that has spawned numerous self-help books written by business gurus who have found a way to make money off giving a few pointers on how to be punctual and efficient at work.

“They call it ‘personal growth’,” says Abilla Nurdin, human resources manager at a real-estate company in Jakarta. “And I don’t get why people need to be inspired to get into the habit of being punctual.”

Not so much inspiration, perhaps, as creating the awareness that time – other people’s and your own – is a precious entity. A recent survey discovered 20 percent of the US population is “consistently late”, especially in relation to their professional lives. Surprisingly, such chronic lateness doesn’t just affect lower-ranked employees, but also CEOs and those in managerial positions.

A follow-up study by AC Nielsen in 2008 concluded that even a 10-minute delay in meetings may cost the US economy some $90 billion in lost productivity.

“Ten minutes? It’s a luxury here. You can waste 10 minutes without anyone breathing down your neck; heck, waste 30 minutes!” says Abilla cynically. “Imagine what you could have accomplished in 10 minutes, though. I know some people who can close a business deal in less than that.”

Events are planned to start 20 to 30 minutes from the stated event time, and that was the case long before Jakarta’s traffic woes made matters even worse (and traffic has become the universal and convenient excuse of choice).

Maybe this is why foreign businesses and personnel have learned to live with this flexible approach to time.

“It was extremely annoying at first,” says “Kelly”, an expatriate project manager at a Jakarta-based NGO. “But then I learned to live with it and to look the other way, even if I’m not necessarily open to it myself.”

Hailing from bustling Manhattan, Kelly is used to living in a society that functions primarily on “clock time” – which means schedules dictate people’s events – as opposed to “event time” – where people’s events dictate their schedules. There, Kelly says, “people are very sensitive about time, because that’s what their whole life is about: managing time.”

On the other hand, in a place where events dictate schedules, like Indonesia, time is treated like an afterthought, with most of us failing to understand how much we lose by wasting it. Even the word “emergency” tends to lose its meaning in a society of this particular nature, where people take their own sweet time – with breaks for phone calls, coffee, a cigarette or two – before doing the job before them.

“I can’t tell you where we went wrong, because I don’t know,” says Abilla. “We’ve tried everything – seminars, incentives, teamwork – and nothing seems to do the trick. And I don’t think that we, as a people, are lazy, but rather, we have no appreciation for time.”

Perhaps we should do what Ecuadoreans did: synchronize our watches and clocks and therefore limit ourselves from pulling the same old bag of excuses where our time pieces read differently than others, as if we lived on two different planets.

Or perhaps we should post a note on the door of our meeting room that forbade latecomers from entering. Maybe we should come up with a really good punishment for those who continue to be late even after the third or fourth reprimand. Chances are none of it would work.

“There’s something that can’t be shaken,” says Kelly. “Like you want what you want the way you want it, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

Unfortunately, no one has ever done a study on just how much we Indonesians lose by consistently running late and performing inefficiently, because that may serve as a wake-up call. Or maybe we still won’t care, preferring to set our alarm clock to a little before nine and take our time as we snuggle in bed and dream of idle Mondays.

Hey, what’s the rush anyway?

Back to The top page