Don’t Oppress My People With Your Time-Keeping Technology
There’s much you can learn during a “diversity” course for faculty at Clemson University. Including the revelation that punctuality is racist:
The online training presents a variety of scenarios featuring fictional characters… [On one slide], a character named Alejandro schedules a 9:00 a.m. meeting between two groups of foreign professors and students. The first group arrived fifteen minutes early, while the second arrived ten minutes late [and wanted to “socialise” first].
According to the course material, any acknowledgement of this tardiness, or of the customary expectation that people arrive on time for meetings, and that they generally apologise when they don’t, is denounced as wrong, and is marked with a large ‘X’ to stress the deviation from the new moral purity. Because casually disrespecting your host – by turning up late and offering no apology and then wasting more of everyone else’s time – is fine, and indeed culturally enriching, provided those arriving late have sufficient racial otherness. And so, instead,
Alejandro should recognise and acknowledge cultural differences with ease and respect… Time may be considered precise or fluid depending on the culture. For Alejandro to bring three cultures together he must start from a place of respect, understanding that his cultural perspective regarding time is neither more nor less valid than any other.
Yes, punctual and tardy are equally valid, apparently. Which will be a huge comfort when all of Alejandro’s subsequent appointments run late as a result or have to be truncated. Thanks to the “respect” in question being entirely unilateral. According to the course literature, this commitment to “diversity” and “inclusion” – and with it, a freewheeling approach to time-keeping – can “lead to better decisions.”
Somewhat related: “We should disrupt Eurocentric notions of time.”
R Sherman, the amusing thing for me in your comment about crossing the street is that the only place I’ve ever been pulled up for Jaywalking was in Denver….at about 12:30 am when the only vehicle even visible was parked. It turned out to be a couple of cops looking for something to break the boredom, however they let me off with a warning once I explained (in probably almost incomprehensible RP English) that I was just a silly tourist heading for a much needed meal at McD’s after a long bus trip. McD’s being the only place still open
Let’s try that with payroll.
In many countries they do.
I suspect that sets up a cycle — boss doesn’t pay me regularly on time, so I don’t turn up to work on time, and the business suffers, to the boss can’t pay me …
And we have another example of differing approaches to people getting paid on time, if at all.
Oops. Can’t possibly imagine what might have happened there. Golly.
Peak Guardian?
Definitely peak Twitter. No question.
Definitely peak Twitter: https://twitter.com/chiIIjake/status/851617824414072832
Sheesh.
A little over three decades ago, This Is Spinal Tap perfectly parodied hard-rock excess with a pint-sized Stonehenge, amps that go “one louder”…
I know it was a joke, but real amps go to 12.
Peak Guardian?
Oh, I dunno, di. You and I are both long-time readers of this blog, and I’d have to say that’s fresh, but daily-bread staple Guardian.
If the polychronic Japanese can learn to turn up on time, so can the other useless f***ers.
Different ideas about when to rock up to a dinner party are one thing, turning up to business meetings when you feel like it (as opposed to 15 min late because you bumped into Jean that you used to work with) are another.
It can’t be a coincidence that nations with a relaxed culture about timekeeping also seem to be relaxed about fraud and bribery, sanitation and being ranked in the bottom quartile of the human development index.
Wow, dicentra. Wow.
We see what you did there.
I suspect that when it comes to a rubber sheath over the old fella, it is exactly like women’s dress sizes.
Except completely opposite.
Wouldn’t it be polychronic to leave for the destination early?
In the hands of the left, every cultural difference becomes a fetish.
Particularly those that run counter to Western conventions.
This particular fetishization is mostly benign idiocy on the part of Clemson. It’s more problematic when they tacitly condone such things as genital mutilation of Muslim girls and other such cultural “norms.”
It can’t be a coincidence that nations with a relaxed culture about timekeeping also seem to be relaxed about fraud and bribery, sanitation and being ranked in the bottom quartile of the human development index.
It isn’t, and I used to point this out regularly when I worked in such places. Hence I was sent for training.
I’m guessing that these Twitter users don’t see time like the rest of us.
Also, fetch the popcorn.
The fact that these academic antics have not created more anti-sjw then sjw bout a gourd sign.
Seems to me that one ought to adapt to the culture where one is residing/visiting, regardless of what you do at home.
If I were to scold Colombians for not being on time, I’d be rude.
If Colombians in the U.S. fail to arrive on time, they’re being rude.
I’m pretty sure I’m the first one to elucidate this concept.
~ St. Ambrose, ~ 4th c. AD
I’m pretty sure I’m the first one to elucidate this concept.
I’m pretty sure dicentra is quite aware of Saint Ambrose.
“[ Points to tardy stool. ]”
Hehehe, perhaps number nine on the Bristol stool chart!
Boss: Meeting tomorrow morning at 9 AM.
Flash forward: It’s 9:20, and intrepid Clemson grad rolls into the meeting.
Boss: Joe, the meeting started at 9
Joe: Sorry, boss, but my notion of time is fluid.
Boss: I understand. You’re fired.
“For Alejandro to bring three cultures together…”
I think I see where they went wrong. Alejandro is trying to get some work done.
/naive
The courses I run are strictly timetabled. We allow a maximum of fifteen minutes (trainer’s discretion) lateness. If you can’t be bothered to read and follow the joining instructions, you get turned away. No exceptions. People try it on once. When they or their sponsor has to pay for a wasted day, they learn. I don’t give a damn about your culture. You abide by the same rules as everyone else or you can take a hike.