This morning, I was late for work.
I did not leave late. It usually takes about 6-7 minutes to drive from my house to work. Today, I left, as usual, about 35 minutes before I was to start. But, I was 15 minutes late.
The reason that I was late is because there was a huge accident on the Westmoreland St bridge, which connects my area of the city to the south side. Both directions were blocked, so traffic was jammed up across the whole span. The southbound traffic is what usually fills the bridge in the morning. After a few folks in the inside lane realized that they were going nowhere fast, they U-turned northbound and headed off the bridge.
Once the way was clear, I did the same and headed for the Princess Margaret bridge, which was in the opposite direction from my workplace. I was only 15 minutes late.
There were several cars involved in the accident and I’ve not heard if anyone was seriously hurt or not. The road was bare this morning, but I imagine that, since it was -27°C this morning, some people had a hard time getting their cars started on time. Add that to a chronic late departure is a recipe for an accident any day. I see the same thing happen when it storms. These accidents happen because someone stopped paying attention at the wrong moment, usually because they’re in too much of a hurry.
Is dying or killing worth being “on time”? Personally, I’d rather be late and live. Or, even better, I check out the weather forecast the night before so that I know if I will have to get up a bit early to shovel my car out or if I have to allow extra time in case my car won’t easily start. It only takes a minute and I arrive alive. I sure wish that these poor folks, who at the least have smashed up cars, had done the same. Nobody needs the results of an accident.
You will arrive early to some other place if you die to avoid being late.
–© Papa Hari
So true! I can always count on you, hari, to say or write something profound.
I ought to have these quotes copyrighted for posterity
A thousands years from now, Papa Hari will be quoted…
There. The first one’s taken care of…
Well put, Corey…and Papa Hari
I’ll have to remember that when I’m perpetually late
As for me I am so happy that I am only a 25 minute walk away from work. Its not so close that I can be lazy and just leave at the last minute and its not so far that I have to trudge for hours or try to arrange a ride or take the bus. And since I walk both ways I am guaranteed a minimum of 50 minutes exercise 5 days out of the week which I desperately need. On my days off I try to work in an hour walk to keep the trend alive.
I’m happy I now work at a place that is more lenient in when you arrive. My manager is one I’ve worked with at 2 other jobs and he feels if you get your work done, doesn’t matter when you come and go, just as long as it’s not turned into a habit. It just has to stay reasonable. Boss says try to make it at 9am, just don’t show up at 1pm on a daily basis and the few times you do show up an hour or two late, have to leave early, etc, won’t be that big of deal.
But then again, one loser on our team is always super late. He’s made a habit out of it and will look for any excuse to come in late. He’s missed more days since the new year than I’ve called into work in the past 10 years I think. There’s always that one and you always think to yourself, if it were me, I’d probably would have been fired by now. But you ask why hasn’t he been fired, well, we need his expertise right now and can’t afford to lose anyone. So it will come back to haunt him one day, hopefully soon.