Do you constantly race the clock? It appears that more and more of us have become casualties in the battle as we feel the crunch.

May 29, 2001

By JOHN HEAD Cox News Service

Nicki Marmoll shudders at the mention of what happened to the Georgia juror who last month showed up for duty about 15 minutes late. Aemal Azimi was thrown in jail.

Marmoll's relieved that there are no punctuality police arresting people for not being on time to other appointments.

"I'd be in biiiiiiiig trouble," Marmoll says.

So would lots of us. With too many things to do, too much traffic to contend with and maybe a bad attitude, too, it appears that more and more of us are casualties in the battle to beat the clock.

For sure, we're feeling the crunch. According to surveys by the National Opinion Research Center, in 1982 more Americans felt unrushed than always rushed, 25 percent to 20 percent. By 1996 those numbers had turned around, with just 18 percent feeling unrushed and 30 percent always rushed.

John Brondello, president of a Bellevue, Wash.-based company that distributes high-tech time clocks, says job punctuality has suffered.

Many employers have given up on strictly enforcing work start times altogether, he says from his office at Time Equipment Co. "A couple of years ago, companies didn't do that as much."

John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, sees the same trend. "The problem has worsened in the last few years," says Challenger, whose firm helps companies teach their discharged employees how to find new jobs. "Low unemployment caused companies to look the other way."

Leslie Charles, a corporate consultant and author of "Why Is Everyone So Cranky?" (Hyperion, $22.95) speculates that more people are running late these days because of what she terms "just-in-time lifestyles," after a manufacturing process that has materials arriving at a plant as needed to save storage expenses.

In humans, she says, it works this way: "They make plans to get there just in time - and something happens."

Nicki Marmoll, 37, of Marietta, Ga., can relate. With children ages 11, 7 and 2, she runs an interior-decorating business out of her home. She often finds herself delayed for a appointment because someone, say, needs help with a homework assignment.

"I guess I try to do it all," Marmoll says. "I'd rather do it all and be a few minutes late than leave something undone."

Lee Scrabis feels the same pressure to meet every obligation, whether at home, at work or elsewhere. "I'm a single mom, I'm working at my job, I'm doing volunteer work - I'm overcommitted," she says. "I try to squeeze in as many things as I can. I think it's the superwoman syndrome."

Scrabis, 42, lives in Alpharetta with her 13-year-old daughter. She says her tendency toward tardiness hasn't hurt her during a 20-year career with BellSouth. "If it's a really important meeting or something like that, I manage to get there on time," Scrabis explains. "For all the other stuff, people just expect me to be 10 minutes late."

Does all of this mean trying to be on time is hopeless? There are plenty who say otherwise.

"There's absolutely no excuse for people to be late," says Joel Miles, a 65-year-old Stone Mountain, Ga., resident who's retired after a career in the military. "You have to plan to be deliberately early, by as least 10 minutes." Miles says he is "sometimes late, but rarely."

Grant Park resident Michaela Graham sees tolerance of tardiness as part of the American mind set. "I grew up in Germany, and you were on time or else," says Graham, 39, who buys and renovates old houses. "Being late shows a lack of respect. I find that a lot of people here aren't as tight about things. People tend to be more casual."

But some, like Leslie Charles, believe part of the problem is that Americans have gotten too uptight about time.

"Our perception of time is different today," Charles says. "Watch people who have to stand in line for two minutes and see how upset they get. We just have this ongoing sense of urgency."

-- (gotta jam@i'm.late), May 29, 2001

Answers

By JOHN HEAD Cox News Service

sorry, couldn't get past the name...

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), May 29, 2001.

SO and my brother and his wife were all leaving DFW this morning on flights that varied only by five minutes. I arranged to drop SO off at my brother's hotel, but my brother insisted that he be there by 5:30 to catch a 7:45 flight. [The airport is only about 10 minutes from the hotel where my brother was staying, but he was nervous about taking the rental car back first, etc.]

SO E-mailed me when he'd arrived back at the job. Yeah...he spent quite a while at the airport, but he also saved my brother from the instructions he'd had on how to return the car.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), May 29, 2001.