"Hey team - sorry I'm a few minutes late..." - The reasons behind our lateness

July 8, 2024

By Stephen McDermott

"Hey team - sorry I'm a few minutes late."

There's a pretty good chance you've heard this more than a few times or have even uttered it yourself.

In this quick but insightful read by Neel Burton in Psychology Today, he asks "when is late late?" and spotlights some of the underlying reasons people may be late (E.g. mediocrity, passive aggression, self-deception).

For social situations or engagements, eight minutes late seems to be a sweet spot for not catching your host off guard.

But what about lateness in the context of the endless onslaught of internal meetings? (let's assume we all agree that being late to a client meeting is a no-no).

Five-minutes seems to be an acceptable grace period for somebody running late for a variety of "predictable surprises":

➡️ a previous meeting going over

➡️ conference room changeover (for in-office days)

➡️ computer re-booting or tech issue

➡️ refilling coffee/water

Safe to say, we all try to mitigate things in our control leading to a mutually accepted norm that a few minutes at the top of a meeting for people to get oriented is acceptable.

But what if perpetual lateness becomes ingrained in a company's internal meeting culture? I posit that there are a few culprits at work:

1️⃣ Your org or team has too many meetings - this is problematic on many levels but in terms of lateness it's a sign that folks don't have time to do some basics during the day that allow them to show up on time (not to mention the time it takes to do actual work during work hours)

2️⃣ People don't want to be there - as the article states, "sometimes, being late is your unconscious (intuition) telling you that you don’t want to be there, or that it would be better for you not to be there."

3️⃣ There's a "workday mindfulness" problem - this means that, whatever the reason, people have not prioritized that particular meeting. Did the meeting organizer send an agenda? Are all invited attendees actually required to be there? Did the organizer set the meeting for the appropriate length - "hey, instead of 12 people multitasking behind their laptops for 60 minutes, let's get the 4 people needed for this meeting together for 20 minutes, over the phone, and solve for problem XYZ." Meeting overload is a symptom of a lacking in mindful management.

Lateness comes with a financial cost, too - so being mindful of this (based on length, # of attendees, avg salary) can help lead us towards fewer, more targeted and effective meetings in this age of burnout.

So, if lateness is part of your team's modus operandi, take the time to understand "why exactly are we always late?" Start with yourself, shine a light on the reasons for your lateness, and orient your team and yourself towards how you can mitigate the true causes and costs of being late.

When it comes to meetings, less can, in fact, be more.