UNITED STATES—Time, there is only about 24 hours in a day, but to be honest it’s a lot less, around 23 hours and some change. So the one thing that peeves me more than anything is people wasting my precious time. Yes, I used the world precious because to me I have very little time in a given day, let alone in a typical week. I might be lucky to have 2 hours maybe 3 hours if I’m lucky in a given day. Most of that time is me decompressing.
So imagine when I make adjustments to my work schedule to accommodate new staff, only to find these individuals become absolute flakes. I am annoyed to the core because not only was my personal time wasted, but time for the company I work for was wasted. I’ve always been told to work smarter not harder. I know I should not be 100 percent angry at the outcome, better now than later. However, I have come to the conclusion that there are people out there who just don’t care about other people. They are absorbed in their own little orbit and as a result, everything else around them doesn’t matter.
I used to be that person who would jump through hoops to try to accommodate other people because of their ‘busy schedule,’ but not anymore. I’ve come to the realization that if a person is serious about doing something they will find a way to make the proper adjustments so that it happens. I’m over excuses, and excuse is nothing more than a silly argument attempting to justify WHY you didn’t do something to begin with. It’s not just the fact that you wasted my time; you wasted your own time. If you don’t want to do something don’t do it, but at the same time don’t give the impression that you care when you don’t.
This is not about punctuality; yes, punctuality does matter, but purposely wasting a person’s time is even worse. You give an impression that you care; when in total reality you could care less about what this person or persons are doing behind the scenes to accommodate you. I’m really speaking on this issue from the perspective of the work environment.
Some of us work in industries that are 24/7 cycles, you don’t get that opportunity to rest or to take a quick break; there is ALWAYS something happening or something that you need to do, and as a result if someone steals or takes that time away from you that makes you less productive, it is damn frustrating. Of course, I should not be complaining about this, but when it happens more than once it becomes an epiphany for most: stop wasting your time and stop allowing people to waste your time!
If people are not happy with the parameters you have set to conduct an orientation, a business meeting or something else of importance so be it. You can only do so much to please the outside world and you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you experience burnout or worse, you find yourself lashing out at people who have done nothing wrong to you at all. Yes, I’ll admit it I have a temper sometimes and if I find my time being wasting, I have to take a moment to take a breather to realize that I have been purposely screwed over by someone and I shouldn’t take it out on someone else because they did nothing wrong to me.
I guess what I’m saying America is that your time matters don’t allow people to waste it in the workplace and don’t allow your time to be wasted in your everyday life. Remember you cannot get time wasted back so utilize it the best you can.
Written By Kelsey Thomas
