We all have that friend who is always late. Someone you can count on to rock up after everyone else to almost every occasion; that friend who when says they are ‘just leaving the house now’ are really just getting out of the shower.
Though they may have earnt themselves a bad reputation with their boss and among your friendship group (who now have to cater to their tardiness by telling them you are meeting earlier than you really are), a new study claims that being late isn’t so bad after all, and we should go easy on our late friends.
A study by Business Insider found that those who are perpetually late have a type B personality – a personality which actually has great traits, such as creativity, optimism and success.
The study urges that people who are late aren’t lazy and disrespectful of people’s time (though it may seem this way when you’re left waiting out in the cold, silently seething), and they don’t get waylaid in a sort of dreamy state, either. Instead, they actually have a lot on their plate and are juggling more than meets the eye, and it is the multi-tasking that makes them tardy.
Also, people with a type B personality are generally positive, and due to their optimistic outlook on life they always assume they have more time than they do, alas they are never on time. What's more, positivity goes hand-in-hand with success, and the study found that optimist salesmen complete 88 percent more sales than their colleagues.
The study claims that type B personalities are wired differently to others in terms of how they perceive time. This was proven when different personality types had to guess how long they thought a minute was: participants from group type A guessed at an average of 58 seconds, while participants from group type B thought an average of 77 seconds had passed. Very optimistic, indeed!
Similarly, according to Why Are We So Different? Your Guide to the 16 Personality Types, those who are late or 'unorganised' fall into the personality type, 'The Enthusiast'. Though the weaknesses of The Enthusiasts among us are mostly revolved around being 'over-extended, scattered and undisciplined,' the positive qualities include being extroverted, spontaneous, high-spirited and playful - not a bad set of qualities to acquire. Therefore, isn't the person's fault if they are always late, their brains just don't work in the same way yours does.
One more thing – a positive attitude can help you live longer as your heart isn’t under stress, so being unconcerned with the time is a salubrious way of life (but it doesn’t hurt to set a few more alarms to get you moving).
So, don't be too hard on your late friend, just put in measures to ensure they manage their time better.
And in the words of Travis from Clueless: ‘I’d like to thank the wonderful crew of McDonald’s for spending hours making those egg McMuffins, without which, I might never be tardy.’
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