Time optimists: why zoomers are much less punctual than boomers

Who’s counting?? Photograph: Tim Robberts/Getty Images

Name: [No response]

Let’s try that again, shall we. Name: [Still no response]

HELLO?! Is there anybody there? One last time. Name: Time optimism.

AGE: Calm down bro, I’m 19.

A, I’m not your bro. And B, you’re late. Hardly! Look, it’s 10 past pass notes.

Guess what, pass notes starts at pass notes o’clock! Yeah, well, who’s counting?

I am. OK, boomer.

OK, zoomer! I imagine that is why you’re late, because you’re young? Correctamundo.

Plain English, please. OK. There’s a survey by a company called Meeting Canary.

What does it do, pet dating? No, it helps host meetings online. And in the survey, of 1,016 British adults of varying age, nearly half – 46% – of gen Z workers (aged 16 to 26) said that showing up between five and 10 minutes late is fine. The founder, Laura van Beers, said: “It appears that being 10 minutes late is now the equivalent of being on time.”

Well, I say it’s bloody rude. No surprise there. Just 20% of baby boomers (aged 59 and over) forgive friends or colleagues for being up to 10 minutes late. And 69% say it’s not acceptable to be late.

What about the people in between us, age-wise? Intolerance for tardiness increases proportionally with age.

Or lateness (and rudeness) decreases proportionally with age. I guess that’s another way of looking at it. Anyway, 39% of millennials (aged 27 to 42) forgive friends and colleagues for being up to 10 minutes late.

Gen X? It drops to 26% for the 43 to 58-year-old.

What about generation Alpha? It was a survey of adults, remember? Children go to school, hopefully. And if they’re late, they still get into trouble, I think.

Call me old-fashioned … You are old-fashioned.

… but late is late. What if I told you I was a time optimist – someone who underestimates how long things take?

I’d probably sigh and say typical zoomer. And I would almost definitely sigh and say typical boomer, failing to understand the real issues faced by young people today.

It’s almost as if there is a generational divide on some social norms and behaviour. Hey, you could be on to something.

Do say: “Punctuality is the thief of time.” (Oscar Wilde)

Don’t say: “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” (William Shakespeare)