Being On Time In American Culture

Being on time, or punctual, has always been an important quality in American culture. People who tend to be on time are perceived to be more responsible and organized, whereas those who aren’t always on time tend to be perceived as the opposite. Personally, I agree with the text that describes being on time as being there about five minutes before the intended time of arrival. My mother taught me this tactic and I’ve seen the effects of people who aren’t on time, such as my brothers. In grade school, it was always important to be on time because of the fact that our school would lock our doors during the school day for safety precautions. If one was late, they would risk being locked out, which in the winter isn’t fun. Our school would also take lunch call right after the second bell, so it was always important to be there to be able to eat lunch. Kids could still get lunch if they were late, but teachers would seem irked that the students weren’t on time so they could do lunch call all at once. Another reason that being on time was important was in high school. In our school, we had four minutes between first and second bell to get to class, which wasn’t far. However, our teachers would take attendance right after the second bell rang, so if one was late, they were automatically marked as …show more content…
Previously working as a barista, my boss wasn’t too harsh if we were late sometimes. For me though, it was important that I was on time because I would arrive at 5:30 a.m. to make sure the shop opened right at 6 a.m. Like mentioned earlier though, being on time also serves as a form of respect. An example being that since I was on time almost every day, my boss would come to me as he wrote the schedule and ask which shifts I preferred. I typically worked mornings and I remembered that most days I would be annoyed because the next employee who came in at 1 was almost always late and earned her a bad reputation around the