Yet Prompt Payment Is Expected
In case you missed it in the comments, I bring news of a dream employee. You see, she’s not at all entitled. It’s just that the world must revolve around her:
Tiktoker claims to suffer from “time blindness” and blasts employers who make employees come on time. She wants to dismantle the system which says people should be on time pic.twitter.com/jbW6SccYJz
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 13, 2023
I think we can assume that madam’s professed “time blindness” – which apparently precludes the use of the reminder function on her phone – doesn’t result in her turning up for work early, or accidentally working extra hours. Or being in any way more useful or helpful, or less self-involved.
I think we can assume that with some confidence.
If the elevation of chronic lateness to some kind of progressive credential or state of pious victimhood sounds familiar, we have encountered several variations on this theme.
Unreliability is, for instance, championed by the Oregon Health Authority, on grounds that “urgency is a white supremacist value,” and therefore expectations of punctuality and preparedness are terribly problematic and something to disdain. Whereas, in matters of health, tardiness and lack of forethought are presumably aspirational, a woke ideal.
And then there was the time we were told, by Marcus Moore, an “equity transformation specialist,” that the cultivation of self-absorption and lack of focus, along with a disregard for deadlines, standards and obligations – and by implication, a disregard for reciprocity – will somehow catapult minority students into gainful employment and a world of many, many friends.
Because expecting minority students to turn up on time is merely “bending to whiteness” and therefore a cause of “tremendous harm.” Unlike the “equity” poison being tipped into their ears. Examples of which abound, some positively surreal.
As noted at the time:
And,
To pick a humdrum example – if a schoolfriend’s mom invites you to join them for tea, and you turn up an hour late, unapologetic, and still expecting to be fed, this is not an obvious basis for congratulation. Or a second invitation.
From this childhood example, you can, I think, extrapolate.
Readers will likely have registered that the convolutions of “equity transformation specialists” are not entirely dissimilar to the insufferable narcissism of the young lady in the video above, our “chaotic philosopher.” It is, I think, worth noting that, when used by Clown Quarter academics and their fellow pinhead agitators, the term “equity” translates as something like “equality of outcome regardless of inputs.”
And so, we have people who disdain the habits of bourgeois life as something to be “dismantled” and done away with, at least for themselves or certain favoured groups, while still expecting the rewards of those same bourgeois habits.
Perhaps there’s a word for that.
She thinks she’s treated badly because she’s supposed to be on time for work, but she doesn’t think her lateness is treating anyone else badly?
Well, quite.
But reciprocation is often the first casualty of narcissism, and indeed of wokeness. A coincidence, I’m sure.
Band name.
The staff sign-in-book lay open each morning. At 0900 precisely, the Principal ruled a red line under the immediate entry above. But that was long ago, in Once Upon A Time Land. Such a draconian practice today would offend ‘Elf & Safety in the workplace.
Well, Little-Miss-Can’t-Get-My-Shit-Together does seem to imagine that the “culture” she wishes to see “dismantled” – say, expectations of workplace punctuality – only exists for the purpose of oppression – to be a bother to her, personally. It couldn’t possibly exist for pretty good reasons – reasons that a supposedly intelligent woman, a self-styled philosopher, really ought to understand.
Among which, to ensure that obnoxious little narcissists learn some manners. Or at least learn the consequences of not having any.
Perhaps there’s a word for that.
Chutzpah?
I was thinking massively entitled parasite. But we’ll go with yours.
Many, man, many years ago when I was young and fit, I found myself in a rather unglamorous resort called Ft. Dix, undergoing boot camp in the US Army. One of the expectations was, of course, that we would rise PROMPTLY at oh dark thirty for a day of fun in the sun (or gold in the cold, if you will, given the time of year). This fostered some resentment, initially, towards the drill instructors until the realization came to pass that they were at the post at least an hour before we were awakened, ready to do their job, that is, shape civilians into soldiers. The resentment evolved into admiration and, for some even, gratitude.
But, I suppose, when the world revolves around you exclusively, that sense of benefits received by the actions of others – oh, you know, the workplace being easier and providing one a sense of fulfillment of a job well done – while also contributing to the mission is simply lost.
Poor love looks as though she’s going to burst into tears.
As she should. Ideally, tears of shame. Chronic lateness has moral connotations. It sends a message about the kind of person you are.
Just imagine her reaction if her welfare payments are delayed. Or her landlord says he will fix her plumbing “when he gets around to it”.
Rather than equality I firmly believe the term equity means pre-determined outcome in favour of everyone except whitey.
With prompting, Madam offers some specifics.
Because, you know, turning up on time, like everyone else, is just too big an ask.
LOL. BUT MUH AUTISM!
Madam’s TikTok bio reads, “Streamer, Christian, AuDHD.” Areas of professed expertise include “politics, economics, futurism.” She therefore thinks that DeSantis is “even more dangerous” than Trump, and that not indulging habitual workplace tardiness is a matter of “workers’ rights.”
A Philosopher Queen, then.
But Chutzpah can sometimes be a good or harmless thing. I don’t see this behavior as being good or harmless in any way.
Sort of like the word, “hoax”. Some hoaxes are actually scams/frauds, but I wouldn’t put the Loch Ness Monster in the scam category.
Growing up isn’t for everyone.
I used to know someone who excused tardiness and unreliability on the grounds that Native Americans “experience time differently”, as if it was some sort of genetically based characteristic rather than merely a habit rooted in the lackadaisical attitudes and practices of the tribal reservation where he grew up. Lotsa luck escaping multi-generational poverty with that attitude, bub.
Some progressive educators do seem entranced by the fantasy of the noble savage, a luminous, exotic creature unhindered by “Eurocentric notions of time,” those white devil “temporalities.” And to a degree that’s overtly condescending and quite farcical. And if taken seriously as lifestyle advice, potentially ruinous.
You see, the way to “disrupt” stereotypes of dimness and sloth among “indigenous and subaltern individuals” is to encourage them to behave in ways that suggest dimness, sloth, and a serious lack of focus.
She’s been taught to do this.
I work at an educational institution and, because of COVID and everything is remote, they don’t enforce the concept of being on time.
I am reasonably sure this nitwit would be the first to go full Karen when her scheduled cable installation occurred on Hawaiian time. For those who have not experienced it, a 9-12 window in Hawaiian time means “Sometime today, maybe”.
Similarly I am sure the panjandrums of the Oregon Health Authority, while lying in an ICU bed, would demand white supremacist values when their monitors went flatline and somebody yelled “Stat!”.
It’s not just Native Americans who experience time differently as anyone who has spent time in the Caribbean or to a lesser extent the Iberian peninsula will testify. I have also been told that Australian aboriginals, including those chancers who consider themselves such, are not the most reliable when it comes to deadlines or appointments.
Maybe we’re just nasty racists who unfairly ruled much of the world until, hey presto, equity of outcome. The slight problem to come will be running out of people who actually turn up at all, let alone on time, to do anything.
What would you like to bet that this gal never misses her breaks and comes back late from lunch? Maybe even scoots out earlier than the 5 o’clock quitting time?
I dealt with this preciousness too many times as a supervisor. Retirement came none too soon.
Hmmm. I think I might see the heart of the matter.
Nah…
But that’s the thing, isn’t it? A preference for punctuality, reciprocal punctuality, isn’t just some stuffy social convention. It does have connotations.
But “mañana” is much more culturally authentic. Or something.
Darleen,
if not that you can be damned sure she is sufficiently time-aware to cease productive work at 4.30, tidy her desk by 4.45 followed by the last of many 10 minute trips to the restroom and finally be first out of the door the microsecond after 5.00. The more advanced slacker will also delay logging off until 4.59 to preserve the illusion.
I would criticise her almost certain low number of productive hours were it not for those numerous “my day as a team leader at google” videos which set the bar so low as to be undetectable.
The Old South, too: In one of his books, Thomas Sowell cites an Englishman who arranged with a Southern gentleman to build him a home. Month after month went by, with no start to the work. Finally the Englishman got fed up and hired someone else, whereupon the Southern “gentleman” showed up with a bunch of friends brandishing rifles because clearly the Englishman had “disrespected” him.
So nothing much has changed in the intervening years.
Theodore Dalrymple once traveled across sub Saharan Africa by public transport. He related that timetables were meaningless: boats and buses would leave when the operators felt like it, which might mean when they felt they had enough passengers.
White.
This might have been in Sowell’s Black Rednecks and White Liberals, but I’d have to take an hour to track it down.
LOL
I actually edited out my question about the gentleman’s ethnicity for fear of being seen to be fixated on the subject.
Brings this to mind…
“She’s got a plan hidden up her shrewd sleeve”
“Someone’s big day, let’s fuck it up and make it about us instead.“
Let’s make it customary to drag these loons away by their hair.
Of course there are jobs that are not dependent on a schedule: software coding, art, and a few others. BUT you still have to put in the hours. If one is a farmer, the hours are even more demanding. One of the reasons the modern world provides such a bounty of things and services is that people are on time. Imagine the old way in the middle east: you would arrange to meet the rest of your caravan at a certain water hole in a certain season, and then arrive and wait WEEKS for them to show up. No big deal.
“Someone’s big day, let’s fuck it up and make it about us instead.“
Well done by all involved, although I’d have liked to see a bit more hip tossing and hogtying.
boats and buses would leave when the operators felt like it, which might mean when they felt they had enough passengers.
I’ve just returned from an extended stint in Mexico, and some of this is almost certainly due to the incredibly minuscule amounts of marginal and absolute profits involved in such a business. Public transit in Western countries runs at a loss; it’s subsidized by the state. Most transit in the third world is entirely privately operated, and if there aren’t enough people to offset the cost of fuel the bus doesn’t go and screw the schedule.
Every. Damn. Time.
Failing that, their eyelids will do.
Finally getting around to reading Johnson’s Intellectuals and that lack of reciprocity is a common thread among his subjects.
Or, to drive the point home, when the ER staff says ‘when we feel like it.’
All cable companies operate on Hawaiian time.
Or by their feet. So their heads go bonk! bonk! bonk! down the stairs.
I suspect that is the usual practise anywhere capital is in short supply and time isn’t.
Spraying them with butyric acid would be a nice fillip.
Reducing CO₂ emissions by making it too expensive to drive.
Addendum: If it was popular would they be reducing prices?
I believe I’ve found part of the problem.
Somewhat. How it works where I live…You call three different people to get an estimate on a decent sized piece of work. One guy never shows up. Second guy shows up, nods his head, seems enthusiastic, but you never hear from him again. Third guy does exactly what you expect, on time, on budget, is friendly and courteous. He’s also either from Atlanta or Florida and everyone else up there hates him for reasons they pretend have nothing to do with his being a success.
But “mañana” is much more culturally authentic. Or something.
For years I’ve been searching for the source of a line from a story I read long ago (possibly a Tom Clancy novel?) in which a character is visiting an Arab country. He asks a friend about the meaning of the word inshallah and is told “It’s sort of like mañana … but without the sense of urgency.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/17/royal-collection-removes-racist-slur-crown-jewels-guide/
OT but I was surprised to see this headline yesterday.
It turns out that the unacceptable racist slur was the word negro, an adjective meaning relating to black ethnicity. In fact not even the full word was used as the article had been careful to delicately spell it as n—-o or n——-d.
The entire article has now been deleted from the Royal Collection Trust website.
I just don’t get it. (Mainly) young people all over the western world admire and seek to emulate black culture but judging by this apparently consider the use of a word meaning black ethnicity to be offensive.
Julie Bindel declares “My vagina is not a ‘bonus hole‘”
I concur.
Julie Bindel declares
Err, Julie Burchill.
Her too!
Would someone please tell her that it is also not a hat?
Baby steps.