Chronic Lateness, A Medical Conditon?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2402902/Chronic-lateness-Man-57-whos-late-diagnosed-medical-condition.html
I have never understood what I call "late" people but surely it cannot be a medical condition. Just rude, lazy un thinking inconsiderate eejits if you ask me. I'm amazed they keep jobs/friends at all.

[boxtops]

Jake, I see your point - but surely if someone is chronically late for everything, we don't start looking for underlying conditions with everyone, when generally (or often) we know it's theri "style", or a generally disorganised life?

[ChillDoubt]

Like I said (and was said in the previous discussion about him) he has obviously always been VERY punctual at meal times.

[Sqad]

JTP.....I think that in your first paragraph you have made an unintentional slip.........you mean " symptom" rather than " syndrome" and if this is the case then I am afraid that I disagree.

One is expected to believe, without evidence, that a commonplace symptom has been discovered in a disorder which has no diagnostic features other than lifestyle description.

You may well be right...........on the other hand.

[pixie373]

Anything is described as a "disorder" if it's detrimental to daily life. Most people have traits of autism, ocd, adhd, sensory, etc.etc. But it's not always a problem. I thought my daughter was always late and disorganised as part of her character. It took some convincing and explanation of the brain by a psychiatrist to persuade me that she genuinely finds it much, much harder than most other people to organise herself. (the daughter that was diagnosed with adhd).

[ludwig]

I used to work with a bloke that was late for everything. I don't think he had a medical condition though. He was just rude and disorganised.

[jake-the-peg]

I'm sure you did Ludwig

I used to work with someone who thought that his own personal experiences were proof that what he saw applied to everybody!

[Canary42]

He got up at 8:15am specifically in order to go to the cinema at 7pm but still didn't make it. I would call this lack of common sense.

[Hypognosis]

That's a depressing thought, Ludwig. It's bad enough being disorganised, without people thinking you're rude, on top.

I'm sure people who are chronically late do not set out to be rude, or are arrogant - thinking their time more important than others - they're just bumbling incompetents who don't realise how fast time is passing, and/or what time of day it is.

They're never going to become more successful in life than you so why make a big deal about them?

[RATTER15]

I fully accept that most people are always late are most likely to be very unorganised people

I can also totally understand it could also be due to a medical condition, I have learned a lot about people with learning problems and Autism, aspergers etc, when you get to looking at how complex the mind is and how these people struggle with very simple tasks, I can fully understand that losing track of how long it takes accomplish certain tasks etc. can be associated to an illness. Just because we don't understand these problems associated with mental issues like this doesn't mean they don't exist.

[RATTER15]

And no, I am not always late, I have not been late for anything in years, and I always arrive for work at least 30 minutes before I am due to start work.

[ludwig]

// They're never going to become more successful in life than you so why make a big deal about them? //

Who's making a big deal? I was just telling you about a rude and disorganised bloke I used to work with.

[Barks]

I "suffer" from a similar inability plan things, to finish jobs on time, arrive on time etc. and unsurprisingly it affects, amongst other things, my job and my chances of grade progression within it.
As part of an enforced improvement plan I did a fair amount of research into the subject and whilst I'm not going to play the syndrome card there is a lot of evidence to support the idea of procrastination as psychological disorder linked to impulsive personality and an inability to filter out other distractions.

Some tasks you can put off to the last minute because it will only take a minute to complete but the difference between prevarication and procrastination is KNOWING that the consequences of not completing the tasks will harm you, maybe even physically, and still putting it off until it is beyond recovery.

I'm not lazy and I'm not stupid and I'm certainly not some psycho lunatic but there are things I do and situations I get myself into where even I despair let alone my workmates

[joko]

my dad is very frustrating ... he will sit there while we all get ready, then as we are all literally standing in the hall, ready to leave, he will 'just nip' to the loo, just check the sockets, just get his coat etc on - so we are all standing there for another 10-15 mins or so

i think the notion is the belief that all those little tasks 'only take a minute', but they don't really.

as others have said, dont mins genuine issues, but when someone just strolls in after you've been waiting and says something like 'oh sorry just got chatting with someone, or just had to nip into a shop or something, thats pretty rude - but they just think it was an important thing to them so its ok