Pet Peeve of the Day -- Meetings Starting Late
In our current corporate world, it has become common for meetings to start and late (typically within 10 minutes from the appointed time). I have asked many people about the etiquette of this. The consensus is that people who show up for meeting later than the appointed time are behaving rudely and unprofessionally. In effect, they are saying that their time is more important than yours. I could not agree more with these opinions.
Some people may argue that if they are only a few minutes late what is the harm. Other than making people wait for you, many people have other meetings and appointments scheduled after your meeting. If you are late in starting a meeting then you will likely be late in ending that meeting. So by being late to one meeting you may be forcing a participant in that meeting to be late to another meeting. In effect your rudeness may be causing someone else to be rude.
In the business world, I have heard people to say if you can not manage your own calendar then you should not manage anyone. I have always interpreted that if you are unable to figure out the simple things like showing up on time for a meeting, how could someone in their good conscience, assign you additional responsibilities?
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